Multicenter prospective study of the humoral autoimmune response in bullous pemphigoid.
Bullous pemphigoid (BP) is an autoimmune bullous disease, associated with autoantibodies directed against the hemidesmosomal components BP180 and BP230. In this study for the first time different laboratories have analyzed the autoantibody profile in the same group of 49 prospectively recruited BP patients. The results show that: 1) disease severity and activity correlated with levels of IgG against the BP180-NC16A domain, but also against a COOH-terminal epitope of BP180, 2) distinct epitopes of the BP180 ectodomain other than BP180-NC16A were recognized by 96% of the BP sera; and 3) the combined use of BP180 and BP230 ELISA led to the detection of IgG autoantibodies in all the BP sera. These results demonstrate the usefulness of the combined ELISAs based on various BP180 and BP230 fragments in establishing the diagnosis of BP and support the concept that BP180 is the major autoantigen of BP.
Di Zenzo
Giovanni
G
Istituto Dermopatico dell'Immacolata, Molecular and Cell Biology Laboratory, IDI-IRCCS, Rome, Italy. g.dizenzo@idi.it
Thoma-Uszynski
Sybille
S
Fontao
Lionel
L
Calabresi
Valentina
V
Hofmann
Silke C
SC
Hellmark
Thomas
T
Sebbag
Nathalie
N
Pedicelli
Cristina
C
Sera
Francesco
F
Lacour
Jean-Philippe
JP
Wieslander
Jörgen
J
Bruckner-Tuderman
Leena
L
Borradori
Luca
L
Zambruno
Giovanna
G
Hertl
Michael
M
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001323:Autoantibodies / Q000097:blood* / Q000276:immunology; D001324:Autoantigens / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology*; D000939:Epitopes / Q000276:immunology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007070:Immunoglobulin A / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology; D007074:Immunoglobulin G / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D024041:Non-Fibrillar Collagens / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology*; D010391:Pemphigoid, Bullous / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000276:immunology; D000097805:Collagen Type XVII
D001323:Autoantibodies; D001324:Autoantigens; D000939:Epitopes; D007070:Immunoglobulin A; D007074:Immunoglobulin G; D024041:Non-Fibrillar Collagens; D011994:Recombinant Proteins; D000097805:Collagen Type XVII