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TY - JOUR AU - ALARCON-SEGOVIA, DONATO AU - RUIZ-ARGUELLES, ALEJANDRO AU - FISHBEIN, EUGENIA PY - 1978 DA - 1978/01/01 TI - Antibody to nuclear ribonucleoprotein penetrates live human mononuclear cells through Fc receptors JO - Nature SP - 67 EP - 69 VL - 271 IS - 5640 AB - IT is commonly accepted that antibodies do not penetrate living cells. In only one study anti-purine and anti-nucleoside antibodies were found to penetrate fertilised sea urchin eggs and modify their development1. Such penetration has been considered unusual and the addition of anti-DNA antibodies does not affect mammalian tissue cells in culture2. Direct immunofluorescence of skin biopsies of patients with mixed connective tissue disease (MCTD) using fluorescent anti-IgG has occasionally shown speckled intranuclear fluorescence3–5 but it is doubted that IgG entered the cells while still viable. Patients with MCTD have high titres of antibody to nuclear ribonucleoprotein (RNP)6,7 which also gives a nuclear speckled pattern on cell substrates in direct immunofluorescence8. Should the antibodies to cellular components and nucleic acids which occur in autoimmune diseases be able to penetrate living cells, a novel mechanism of immunologically mediated damage and/or dysfunction could operate. We show here that anti-RNP IgG can penetrate viable human mononuclear cells (MNC), by their surface Fc receptor, and react with their nuclear RNP. SN - 1476-4687 UR - https://doi.org/10.1038/271067a0 DO - 10.1038/271067a0 ID - ALARCON-SEGOVIA1978 ER -