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Antibodies were measured in the sera of fifteen patients with untreated coeliac disease and twenty-eight patients with inflammatory bowel disease. Increased levels of specific IgG, IgG1, IgG2, and IgG4 antibody to wheat gluten fraction B, measured by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, were shown in the coeliac disease group, but not in the inflammatory bowel disease group. No specific IgE antibody to fraction B was detected but 33% of the patients with coeliac disease had specific short-term sensitizing (anaphylactic) IgG antibody activity (IgG S-TS) to fraction B. There was no correlation between the IgG2 or IgG4 specific antibody and the presence of IgG S-TS activity.

Twenty-three patients with extrinsic allergic alveolitis due to an allergy to inhaled budgerigar serum protein (budgerigar fancier's lung disease) were typed for HLA-A, B, C and HLA-DR antigens. Antigen frequencies were compared with those found in 154 healthy control subjects. No statistically significant variation in the frequency of any HLA antigen was detected. Exclusion of two patients who had concurrent coeliac disease, and subdivision of the population into those with acute and chronic disease, failed to reveal any significant association with an HLA specificity. A non-significant increase in B8-DR3 amongst the patients with acute disease was noted. Possible reasons for the apparent HLA associations previously reported by others for extrinsic allergic alveolitis are discussed.

Precipitins to avian serum antigens have been found in the sera of bird fanciers and, until now, they have been considered strong supporting evidence for a clinical diagnosis of bird fancier's lung (BFL). We now report that 35% of patients with coeliac disease, none of whom had recently kept a bird, had precipitins against an avian serum antigen common to all the avian species tested, but which was distinct from the antigens usually associated with BFL. This antigen was a component of hen egg yolk but not of bird droppings. In patients with BFL the antibody response results from inhaled antigens in the bird droppings, whereas the antibody response in patients with coeliac disease probably results from eating uncooked or soft-boiled eggs.

Some 103 patients with asthma and 100 healthy volunteers have been typed for HLA-A, B and C and HLA-DR antigens. The 103 patients consisted of thirty-three with intrinsic asthma, thirty-four with extrinsic asthma, and thirty-six known to have precipitins to Aspergillus fumigatus. No increase in frequency of any of the A, B, C, or DR antigens was found to be significant after correction for the number of comparisons was made. However certain trends comparable to findings in other immunopathic disorders were noted. For example B12 was increased in the allergic asthmatics (46 vs 29% controls) and it is suggested that B12 is associated with the ability to produce the IgE antibodies. A3/B7/DRw2 (which are in linkage disequilibrium) all show a decreased frequency in intrinsic asthma (24, 12 and 9% vs 32, 26 and 24% respectively in controls). Finally B8 and DRw3, which showed a moderate increase in frequency in all three groups of asthmatics, were found in five of seven patients with low atopy but persisting antibodies to A. fumigatus. Further detailed studies of these asthmatic subgroups is warranted.