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A novel autoantibody to the putative oncoprotein DEK in pauciarticular onset juvenile rheumatoid arthritis
I S Szer1, H Sierakowska, W Szer
1Division of Rheumatology, Children's Hospital Los Angeles, CA.
Objective:
To define the frequency of a novel autoantibody reactive with a 45 kDa protein in children with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA). This protein is expressed by the putative oncogene DEK associated with a subtype of acute myeloid leukemia.
Methods:
The sera of 158 children with JRA were analyzed for the presence of anti-DEK by immunoblotting using purified DEK protein and compared with sera of 109 children with other rheumatic diseases and 25 healthy controls with no connective tissue disease.
Results:
Antibodies to DEK were found significantly more frequently among children with JRA than among children with other rheumatic diseases or controls (p < 0.001). Among children with JRA, anti-DEK was significantly more often associated with pauciarticular onset than with poly-articular and systemic onset subtypes (77 vs 29 and 8%, respectively, p < 0.001). Anti-DEK was no more frequent among children with pauciarticular JRA complicated by iritis than among those without iritis (88 vs 71%, respectively). The frequency of anti-DEK in other rheumatic diseases varied from 0 in children with spondyloarthritis to 31% in scleroderma.
Conclusion:
Antibodies to DEK are highly associated with pauciarticular onset JRA.