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The study of serum samples, obtained from 15 cosmonauts before and after space flights, with the use of the indirect fluorescent method showed that in 7 cosmonauts antibodies to different elements of the human heart muscle appeared after flights. Strong and very strong luminescence of the elements of heart muscle tissue was detected in the cosmonauts after the third space flight. When studying the sera on sections of bovine heart muscle tissue, the reactions of the sera taken before and after flights were found to have no essential differences.

The reaction of heterophile antibodies with interstitial connective tissue cells of bovine myocardium was inhibited with alpha-D-galactose. D-glucose, D-mannose, L-fucose, N-acetylgalactosamine and other monosaccharides demonstrated the lack of inhibitory activity. Disaccharide melibiose and trisaccharide raffinose containing terminal alpha-galactose also had an inhibitory effect on the reaction of sera with bovine myocardium. The results show that heterophile antibodies to heterophile bovine antigen revealed in rheumatic patients' sera differ from antibodies to I and i antigens and T-antibodies, whose specificity is associated with terminal beta-galactose. They also differ from other heterophile antibodies described earlier.

Sera of patients suffering from rheumatic diseases and myocarditis were examined on the sections of human and bovine myocardial tissue by indirect immunofluorescence with the use of pure IgG antibodies or monospecific sera against IgG, IgA and IgM. It was shown that antibodies reacting with different myofibers and interstitial connective tissue of the heart belong to the main immunoglobulin classes (IgG, IgA and IgM). There was a significant predominance of IgG antibodies as shown by the frequency of their detection and by the titer height. The predominance of antibodies to certain classes of immunoglobulins did not correlate with a specific disease entity. The frequency of detecting antibodies to a certain immunoglobulin class was in good agreement with the time of the disease onset. Moreover, the frequency of positive reactions due to IgG, IgA, and IgM antibodies correlated with the level of the appropriate immunoglobulins in the test sera.

Purified antibodies against a specific determinant of group A streptococcal polysaccharide were obtained. These antibodies were investigated by the immunofluorescent method on tissue sections of the heart and heart valves. No cross-reactions between group A streptococcal polysaccharide and mammalian connective tissue were revealed.

Reactions of heterophilic antibodies with antigens of the interstitial connective tissue (ICT) of the myocardium of different animals were studied and compared. The reactions were identical on bovine, pig, sheep and rabbit myocardium. The heterophilic antigen of the ICT of bovine myocardium was also found on bovine, rabbit and rat red cells and was absent on sheep red blood cells. It is suggested that heterophilic antigen of the ICT of the bovine myocardium is a novel heterophilic antigen, the specificity of which is linked with D-galactose and which differs from antigens of other heterophilic systems.

The work discusses the results of studying by indirect immunofluorescence and the passive hemagglutination test antibodies to sacolemma antigens of myocardial muscle fiber in patients with rheumatic fever as compared to those in patients with affection of myocardium of nonrheumatic origin. The frequency of the detection of antibodies to sarcolemma antigens in sera of patients with rheumatic fever by immunofluorescence correlates with the activity of the process. No differences were revealed in the frequency of detection of antibodies reacting with sarcolemma in rheumatic fever and in other heart diseases in the active phase. Antibodies to sarcolemma antigens contained in HCL-extracts from human myocardium preparations, which are detected in the passive hemagglutination test are revealed significantly more often in sera of patients with rheumatic fever. Control experiments with IgG fractions obtained from whole sera were conducted to remove any possible nonspesific reactions of tissue extracts with the sera tested.