Antibodies to histones in systemic lupus erythematosus

Antibodies to histones were investigated in the serum of forty-five patients with spontaneously occurring systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) who were not receiving any form of treatment. Twenty-three had active and twenty-two had inactive disease. Thos with active disease were also studied after the initiation of corticosteroid treatment to determine the effect of treatment on anti-histone antibodies. Both a complement fixation method and indirect immunofluorescence of acid-eluted histone-reconstituted tissue sections were used, with excellent correlation between these two methods. Eleven of the forty-five SLE patients, but none of forty-five normal controls had antibodies to histone. Untreated patients with active and inactive disease had a similar incidence of antibodies to histone. They disappeared, however, soon after the initiation of treatment in the patients with active disease. Patients with antibodies to histones had a higher prevalence of cutaneous vasculitis, anaemia, lupus nephropathy and Raynaud's phenomenon, but a lower prevalence of lupus brain involvement than those without such antibodies. Only the latter, however, reached statistical significance.