Work

Human GM-CSF Autoantibodies and Reproduction of Pulmonary Alveolar Proteinosis

Year: 2009

Type: article

Abstract: To the Editor: Idiopathic pulmonary alveolar proteinosis is a rare disease in which surfactant lipids and proteins accumulate in pulmonary alveolar macrophages and alveoli, resulting in respiratory insufficiency and, in severe cases, respiratory failure.1 Granulocyte–macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) autoantibodies occur in these patients2 and may mediate the pathogenesis of this disease, but they are also present in healthy persons and in immune globulin prepared from plasma obtained from healthy persons. Since GM-CSF is required for surfactant catabolism by alveolar macrophages in mice, we hypothesized that high levels of GM-CSF autoantibodies (i.e., levels sufficient to eliminate endogenous GM-CSF priming of myeloid . . .

Source: New England Journal of Medicine

DOI: 10.1056/nejmc0904077