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Biopsy specimens of the skin of the back of the forearm and hand in 20 patients with systemic scleroderma were studied using histological and electron microscopy methods. There were revealed evidences of intensified neofibrillogenesis, changes in collagen structures of the derma (destruction and defects of packing of collagenous fibrills, variability of their thickness in a fibre) and in the microcirculatory bed. In 18 out of 20 cases the nuclei of the connective-tissue cells and cells of the basal layer of the epidermis contained the so-called nuclear bodies, which are considered by a number of authors as an indirect evidence of a viral infection. The process of an intensified neoformation of collagen fibrils considerably predominated over destructive processes in collagen structures.

Morphological studies of 14 chorionallantoic membranes and organs of chick embryos which had been infected on the 7--8th day of incubation with leucocytic mass from patients with systemic lupus erythematosus were carried out. Corresponding virological and morphological control studies were performed. The changes observed were repeatedly reproduced in multiple inoculations (from the 2nd to the 16th passage). Apart from morphological changes, which may be listed among general pathological processes (impairment of the circulation, dystrophy, proliferation), changes testifying to a possible cytopathic effect disintegration of nuclei, formation of gigantic cells and multinuclear symplasts were also noted. The most pronounced changes, both in the chorionallantoic membrane and in internal organs, were observed on the 3rd--5th passage and on the 3rd--5th day of incubation following inoculation. They correlated with the clinical activity of the process in patients from whom the blood for inoculation had been taken. The data obtained justify the assumption concerning the existence in the blood of the patients with systemic lupus erythematosus a transplantable agent producing a cytopathic action, and may be considered as a new indirect corroborative evidence in favour of the concept of the viral nature of systemic lupus erythematosus.