Inhibition of vaccinial hemagglutinins by sera of patients with coronary heart disease and other chronic illnesses.

• Because of evidence relating disturbances in lipid metabolism and transport to atherosclerosis, it seemed of interest to investigate the behavior of sera from affected subjects with a serologically active lipid. This interaction might be reflected in alterations in the serum and thus permit detection and quantitation of the disturbance. Vaccinial hemagglutinin (VHA) appeared to be a likely material for this investigation since it is a lipoprotein complex, readily quantitated by hemagglutination, and known to react in vitro with some serum substances.' Inhibition of hemagglutination by these substances is usually presumed to represent specific antibody, formed in response to vaccination or natural infection"; however, nonspecific inhibition has also been described in animal sera and in human pathological body fluids. ' l s It is suggested that alterations in the level of nonspecific inhibition might be indicative of the metabolic disturbances related to atherosclerosis.