Immunopathology of rheumatoid arthritis. Antikeratin antibodies precede the clinical disease
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Published on: December 15, 2011
1Department of Bacteriology and Immunology, University of Helsinki, Finland.
Objective:
We sought to determine whether circulating antikeratin antibodies (AKA) precede the onset of rheumatoid arthritis (RA).
Methods:
By matching the registers of 2 previous population studies with the registry of patients receiving antirheumatic drugs several years later, pre-illness serum specimens could be obtained from 39 individuals who subsequently developed RA. AKA were assayed with the standard indirect immunofluorescence technique.
Results:
Ten of 39 serum specimens from individuals who subsequently developed seropositive RA, and 1 of 15 sera from individuals who developed seronegative RA, were positive for IgG-class AKA by immunofluorescence assay. The AKA-positive sera were also positive for rheumatoid factors.
Conclusion:
The findings focus attention on the role of pre-illness immunologic events in the pathogenesis of RA.
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