U.C.L.A. Rheumatology Pathophysiology of Disease Course Lecture,
Second Year Medical School 1997

       Immune complexes depositing in the brain may cause neuropsychiatric manifestations such as cognitive dysfunction and seizures. Immune complexes may deposit on the surface of heart valves, particularly the mitral valve. Together with inflammatory cells, fibrin, and necrotic debris, these deposits result in vegetations, giving rise to verrucous (wart-like) or Libman-Sacks endocarditis.
       SLE is the best clinical example of the concept of circulating immune complex disease, but the model as presented is too simple. There are many as yet unexplained local factors such as electrical charge as well as structural differences of antibodies and antigens within the complexes which may critically determine whether these complexes deposit at a specific site and whether they subsequently cause inflammation and disease