The diagnostic and prognostic significance of ANCA

Antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies (ANCA) constitute a family of auto-antibodies directed against various components of the neutrophil cytoplasm. Their identification and association with vasculitis and rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis has led to considering these diseases as possible autoimmune disorders. In addition, ANCAs constitute a diagnostic tool and a guideline for therapy during follow-up. Originally identified by Davies et al. in 1982 in 8 patients who had necrotizing glomerulonephritis but no immune deposits or systemic vasculitis (1), ANCA are now regarded as a serological marker for active pauci-immune necrotizing and crescentic glomerulonephritis, either in their renal-limited form or associated with systemic vasculitis such as Wegener's granulomatosis (WG), microscopic polyangiitis (mPA), and Churg-Strauss syndrome (CSS) (2-9). The usefulness of ANCA detection for the diagnosis of these forms of vasculitis is now established but its usefulness on follow-up remains disputed (10-13). Two major ANCA antigens have already been identified. Proteinase 3 (PR3) in a serine protease of 29 kDa initially identified by Kao and producing a cytoplasmic staining pattern termed cANCA by indirect immunofluorescence (IIF) (14,15). Myeloperoxidase (MPO) is another myeloid lysosomal enzyme producing an artefactual perinuclear staining of ethanol-fixed neutrophils termed pANCA (2,16). Both are localized in the azurophilic granules of neutrophils and monocytes, are translocated to the cell surface during cell activation (17), and are able to interact directly with ANCA. Despite this common location, MPO and PR3 are associated with a broad spectrum of clinical conditions.