The destruction of red cells by antibodies in man. I. Observations on the sequestration and lysis of red cells altered by immune mechanisms

Much of our present knowledge of the pathologic physiology of the acquired hemolytic anemias origi-nated from observations of the fate of heterologous red cells in immunized animals and of the syn-dromes produced in animals by injections of heter-ologous anti-red cell sera (1-17). The frank he-molysins present in anti-red cell sera seemed to provide a complete explanation for the experi-mental findings, but it was early stressed by Muir and M'Nee (6) and by Banti (8) that the hemo-lytic action of hemolysin-containing sera was greater in extent and slower in evolution when in-jected into the intact animal than when added to red cells in vitro. It was also pointed out by Banti (8) and by others (12, 14) that anti-red cell ser