Pemphigus like antibodies in sera of patients with thermal burns, gunshot wounds, and skin grafts

Serum from 32 patients with 20-80% thermal burns, 69 patients with severe war inflicted wounds, and 22 patients who had undergone skin grafts were examined by the indirect immunofluorescent test, to determine whether intercellular antiepithelial antibody was present. No patients with thermal burns had these antibodies in their sera. Antiskin antibodies were found in one patient who had received a gunshot wound and later a split thickness skin graft. It is unlikely that intercellular antiepithelial antibodies are responsible for producing non viability of autologous split thickness skin grafts in most patients with burn and gunshot wounds.