Anti-golgi complex autoantibodies in a patient with Sjögren syndrome and lymphoma

During routine immunofluorescence studies of the serum of a patient with Sjögren's syndrome and lymphoma we detected antibodies giving a cytoplasmic pattern which did not correspond to previously described patterns found for autoantibodies. Using different cells and tissues as substrates for indirect immunofluorescence, including rat liver, rat small bowel, rat testicle, human thyroid, guinea-pig plasma cells and cultured human fibroblasts, the cytoplasmic structure to which these autoantibodies are directed seems to be the golgi complex, a conclusion supported by histochemical studies. Furthermore, these antibodies were absorbed by isolated golgi vesicles. The autoantibodies are of IgG and IgA classes, and the antigen(s) with which they react is(are) resistant to treatment with DNAse and RNAse. None of the sera from 50 normal individuals, seven patients with Sjögren's syndrome (five of them primary and two associated with rheumatoid arthritis; none of them with lymphoma), 25 patients with mixed connective tissue disease, 10 patients with systemic lupus erythematosus and five patients with progressive systemic sclerosis, had antibodies directed against this cytoplasmic specificity, as determined by indirect immunofluorescence. This is the first time that autoantibodies directed to the golgi complex are reported. The significance of this finding awaits further descriptions in patients with a clinical picture similar to the one reported here.