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Anti-Nuclear Antibody Screening Using HEp-2 Cells
Published on: June 23, 2014
Anti-endothelial cell antibodies from patients with limited cutaneous systemic sclerosis bind to centromeric protein
Amélie Servettaz1, Mathieu C Tamby, Philippe Guilpain
1Université Paris--Descartes, faculté de Médecine, UPRES-EA 1833, Laboratoire d'Immunologie, Paris, France.
By using a quantitative immunoblotting technique on protein extracts of human macrovascular and microvascular endothelial cells, we have analyzed the self-reactive repertoires of IgG from 20 patients with limited cutaneous SSc, 40 patients with diffuse SSc and 60 age- and sex-matched healthy controls. Serum IgG from 15/20 patients with limited cutaneous SSc and anti-centromere antibodies bound to at least one of the two 75- and 85-kDa protein bands in the different endothelial cell extracts, whereas IgG from healthy controls or patients with diffuse SSc did not. N-terminal sequencing of the 75- and 85-kDa bands identified CENP-B as the sole antigen in both bands. Moreover, IgG from all of the SSc patients who recognized the 75- and/or 85-kDa bands bound to a full-length recombinant CENP-B protein as assessed by ELISA, whereas IgG from other SSc patients did not. The main target of anti-endothelial cell antibodies in patients with limited cutaneous SSc is the nuclear and ubiquitous protein CENP-B.
By using a quantitative immunoblotting technique on protein extracts of human macrovascular and microvascular endothelial cells, we have analyzed the self-reactive repertoires of IgG from 20 patients with limited cutaneous SSc, 40 patients with diffuse SSc and 60 age- and sex-matched healthy controls. Serum IgG from 15/20 patients with limited cutaneous SSc and anti-centromere antibodies bound to at least one of the two 75- and 85-kDa protein bands in the different endothelial cell extracts, whereas IgG from healthy controls or patients with diffuse SSc did not. N-terminal sequencing of the 75- and 85-kDa bands identified CENP-B as the sole antigen in both bands. Moreover, IgG from all of the SSc patients who recognized the 75- and/or 85-kDa bands bound to a full-length recombinant CENP-B protein as assessed by ELISA, whereas IgG from other SSc patients did not. The main target of anti-endothelial cell antibodies in patients with limited cutaneous SSc is the nuclear and ubiquitous protein CENP-B.

