Antibodies to centromere antigens measured by an automated enzyme immunoassay.
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.
González-Buitrago
José Manuel
JM
Laboratorio de Autoinmunidad, Servicio de Bioquímica, Hospital Universitario, Salamanca, Spain. buitrago@gugu.usal.es
González
Concepción
C
Hernando
Monserrat
M
Carrasco
Rosario
R
Sánchez
Angel
A
Navajo
José Alejandro
JA
Papisch
Wolfgang
W
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
D001323:Autoantibodies; D001324:Autoantigens; C497926:CENPB protein, human; D051936:Centromere Protein B; D002868:Chromosomal Proteins, Non-Histone; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins