title: Antibodies to centromere antigens measured by an automated enzyme immunoassay.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Anticentromere antibodies (ACA) are frequently observed in patients with Raynaud's phenomenon and in the CREST syndrome, a subclass of systemic sclerosis. Likewise, ACA are also found in other autoimmune and non-autoimmune diseases. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the clinical utility of the measurement of antibodies to the best characterized centromere antigen (CENP-B) protein by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) that uses human recombinant CENP-B antigen and compare it with indirect immunofluorescence assay (IFA) on HEp-2 cells.
  
  
  METHODS
  We have analyzed 128 sera samples from patients with the following diseases: systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE, n = 53), mixed connective tissue disease (n = 1), primary Sjögren syndrome (n = 10), primary Raynaud's phenomenon (n = 10), primary systemic sclerosis (n = 7), polymyositis/dermatomyositis (n = 3), rheumatoid arthritis (n = 9), cutaneous lupus (n = 5), primary biliary cirrhosis (n = 9), chronic autoimmune hepatitis (n = 5) and ANA-positive non-autoimmune diseases (n = 16).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The ELISA evaluated shows a good concordance with IFA, with the advantage of being an automatable quantitative technique.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Measurement of anticentromere antibodies by this ELISA using human recombinant antigen is a useful alternative for the autoimmune laboratory checking for diseases associated with anticentromere antibodies.
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Autoinmunidad, Servicio de Bioquímica, Hospital Universitario, Salamanca, Spain. buitrago@gugu.usal.es
authors.forename: José Manuel
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: González-Buitrago
authors.forename: Concepción
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: González
authors.forename: Monserrat
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hernando
authors.forename: Rosario
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Carrasco
authors.forename: Angel
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sánchez
authors.forename: José Alejandro
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Navajo
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Papisch
mesh_terms: D001323:Autoantibodies / Q000097:blood*; D001324:Autoantigens / Q000276:immunology*; D002503:Centromere / Q000276:immunology*; D051936:Centromere Protein B; D002868:Chromosomal Proteins, Non-Histone / Q000097:blood*; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005455:Fluorescent Antibody Technique; D006801:Humans
chemical_list: D001323:Autoantibodies; D001324:Autoantigens; C497926:CENPB protein, human; D051936:Centromere Protein B; D002868:Chromosomal Proteins, Non-Histone; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins