[Antibodies to heart valve fibroblasts in the sera of rheumatic patients].

The antibodies reactive in immunofluorescence with the fibroblasts of human and bovine heart valves were isolated from the rheumatic patients' sera with the aid of immunoadsorbent prepared from human heart valve tissue. No reaction between the antibodies and the fibroblasts of the interstitial connective tissue of the myocardium was observed. It seems that the fibroblasts of the heart valves and the myocardium contain different antigens; the presence of common antigenic components in human and bovine valve fibroblasts is shown.