title: Antinucleosome antibodies correlate with the disease severity in children with systemic lupus erythematosus.
abstract: We compared the serum levels of antinucleosome antibodies (anti-NCS Abs) in thirty pediatric systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients by using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) to 29 adult SLE patients, 30 healthy controls, 21 juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) and 23 Henoch-Schonlein purpura (HSP) patients as autoimmune disease controls. The mean anti-NCS Ab titer in the pediatric SLE patients was 1552.7+/-1842.2 U/ml, higher than those of adult SLE patients (194.3+/-402.7 U/ml), normal controls (9.5+/-5.7 U/ml) and disease controls (JIA: 7.7+/-4.0 U/ml, HSP: 5.7+/-4.4 U/ml) (p<0.05). The prevalence of both anti-NCS Ab (90%) and anti-ds DNA Ab (76.7%) in pediatric SLE patients were higher (p<0.05) than that of adult SLE patients (58.6% and 48.3%). A positive correlation was demonstrated between anti-NCS Ab and anti-dsDNA Ab as well as the SLEDAI scores in pediatric and adult patients (p<0.05). The inverse correlation of anti-NCS Ab levels with C3 was observed in both pediatric and adult SLE patients (pediatrics, r=-0.61, p=0.0003; adult, r=-0.44, p=0.02). Our data suggested that in pediatric SLE patients, anti-NCS Ab could be as good a marker for SLE diagnosis and disease activity assessment as in adult SLE patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, National Taiwan University Hospital, #7 Chung-Shan South Road, Taipei 100, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Ju-Fang
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Yao-Hsu
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Li-Chieh
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Jyh-Hong
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Ein-Yiao
authors.initials: EY
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.forename: Bor-Luen
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Chiang
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000974:Antibodies, Antinuclear / Q000097:blood*; D001324:Autoantigens / Q000276:immunology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008180:Lupus Erythematosus, Systemic / Q000097:blood* / Q000276:immunology*; D008297:Male; D009707:Nucleosomes / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D000974:Antibodies, Antinuclear; D001324:Autoantigens; D009707:Nucleosomes