Anti-cofactor autoantibodies in systemic lupus erythematosus: prevalence, clinical and HLA class II associations.
The aim of our study was to evaluate the clinical and HLA-class II allele associations of some anti-cofactor antibodies in a homogeneous group of European patients with SLE. One hundred thirty-six patients with SLE, fulfilling four or more of the ACR 1997 revised criteria for the classification of the disease, coming from 7 European countries, were enrolled consecutively. Anti-prothrombin (anti-PT), anti-annexin V (anti-AnnV), anti-protein C (anti-Cprot) and anti-protein S (anti-Sprot) were determined by using commercial ELISA kits. Molecular typing of HLA-DRB1, DRB3, DRB4, DRB5, DQA1, DQB1 and DPB1 loci was performed by using PCR-SSOP method, carried out using digoxygenin (DIG) labeled probes. The prevalence of anti-AnnV, anti-PT, anti-Cprot and anti-Sprot was 19%, 10.4%, 4.4% and 8.1%, respectively. Twenty-seven % of anti-AnnV positive patients reported migraine vs 5.5% of anti-AnnV negatives (p = 0.003, but p not significant, odds ratio (OR) = 6.4, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 2-21). Anti-PT, anti-AnnV and anti-Sprot were positively associated with some HLA alleles, but pc was not significant. In this study we have shown that some HLA alleles carry the risk to produce antibodies against phospholipid-binding proteins, but these association need confirmation in other studies, because they have never been reported and appear to be weak associations.
Unità Operativa Complessa di Reumatologia, Azienda Ospedaliera San Camillo-Forlanini, Rome, Italy.
Gian Domenico
GD
Sebastiani
Gabriella
G
Morozzi
Francesca
F
Bellisai
Irene
I
Fineschi
Maria Romana
MR
Bacarelli
Antonella
A
Simpatico
Josep
J
Font
Ricard
R
Cervera
Frederic
F
Houssiau
Antonio
A
Fernandez-Nebro
Enrique
E
De Ramon Garrido
Ornella
O
De Pità
Josef
J
Smolen
Mauro
M
Galeazzi
D000328:Adult; D000483:Alleles; D001323:Autoantibodies / Q000097:blood*; D005260:Female; D005787:Gene Frequency / Q000276:immunology; D005802:Genes, MHC Class II; D006801:Humans; D008180:Lupus Erythematosus, Systemic / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology*; D008297:Male
D001323:Autoantibodies