[A study of antiendothelial cell antibodies in Behcet's disease].
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the clinical significant of antiendothelial cell antibodies (AECA) in Behcet's disease.


METHODS
With human umbilical vein endothelial cell as substrate cell, sera from 59 Behcet's disease patients were detected for the presence of AECA by using fixed cell-ELISA. The associations of AECA to clinical disease activity were analyzed. In addition, Sera from other 70 systemic vasculitis (including 28 Takayasu arteritis, 20 Wegener's granulomatosis, 8 polyarteritis nodosa, 9 microscopic polyangiitis, 5 Churg-Strauss syndrome), 57 systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), 25 rheumatoid arthritis and 85 healthy donors were screened for AECA. The associations of AECA to clinical disease activity were analyzed.


RESULTS
The prevalence of AECA by human umbilical vein endothelial cell cell-ELISA was 47.5% in Behcet's disease. Compared with patients with rheumatoid arthritis (4.0%) and normal group (1.2%), AECA were more frequently found in patients with Behcet's disease, other systemic vasculitis (68.6%) and SLE (45.7%) (P < 0.01). The positive result on pathergy testing was more frequently found in AECA-positive patient with Behcet's disease (P < 0.05). After the treatment, patients with active disease entering remission showed a decrease in both AECA titers and the mean level of ESR (P < 0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
AECA could be found more frequently in patients with Behcet's disease, associated closely with disease activity, which suggest that AECA may be used as an index in monitoring disease activity and effect of therapy in Behcet's disease. But AECA could also be found in other systemic vasculitis and SLE.
Zheng
Wen-jie
WJ
Department of Rheumatology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Peking Union Medical College, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing 100730, China.
Zhao
Yan
Y
Tang
Fu-lin
FL
Dong
Yi
Y
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001323:Autoantibodies / Q000097:blood*; D001528:Behcet Syndrome / Q000276:immunology*; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D014471:Umbilical Veins / Q000166:cytology
D001323:Autoantibodies; C087589:anti-endothelial cell antibody