A rabbit model of diffuse proliferative lung disease induced by one intravenous injection of complete Freund's adjuvant was used t o study the possible phlogistic effects of human anti-y-globulins. When induction of proliferative lung disease was followed by intravenous administration of human yM anti-7-globulins, considerable increment in perigranulomatous inflammation along with alveolar wall and arteriolar anti-y-globulin deposition was noted. Four of 10 animals thus treated showed segmental hemorrhagic pulmonary infarctions. Control animals in which the induction of diffuse proliferative lung disease was followed by administration of serologically inactive normal human yM showed no accentuation of gross or microscopic pulmonary lesions and no specific pulmonary deposition of human yM globulins. These experiments suggest that human yM anti-7-globulins fix in alveoli and arterioles near areas of active subacute or chronic pulmonary inflammation and are capable of accentuating in- flammatory response and vascular injury.
An animal model for diffuse proliferative lung disease has been developed recently and adapted for the study of such human conditions as sarcoidosis and other types of pulmonary granulomas (1 -4). During our immunofluorescent studies of rheumatoid lung (5), we were impressed by the extensive pulmonary capillary and alveolar wall deposition of y M rheumatoid factor in many of the tissue lesions directly examined. In the studies of these hu-