Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 4, 2026
Anti-Nuclear Antibody Screening Using HEp-2 Cells
Published on: June 23, 2014
Antipolymer antibody reactivity in a subset of patients with fibromyalgia correlates with severity
R B Wilson1, O S Gluck, J R Tesser
1Autoimmune Technologies, L.L.C., New Orleans, Louisiana 70112, USA. rwilson@communique.net
Objective:
To determine the prevalence of antipolymer antibodies (APA) in patients with fibromyalgia (FM) and autoimmune disease control groups and to determine if the presence of these antibodies correlates with severity in patients with FM.
Methods:
Sera from patients with FM (n = 47), osteoarthritis (OA) (n = 16), and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) (n = 13) were analyzed. Patients with implants of any kind and patients with concurrent autoimmune conditions were excluded from study. Banked sera from autoimmune disease controls including poly/dermatomyosis (n = 15), RA (n = 30), systemic lupus erythmatosus (SLE) (n = 30), and systemic sclerosis (SSc) (n = 30) were also analyzed. To determine if seroreactivity correlates with severity, banked sera from patients with FM assessed as severe (n = 28) or mild (n = 37) and from controls (n = 21) were assayed.
Results:
Following analysis, the prevalence of seroreactivity was found to be higher in patients with FM (22/47, 47%) compared to patients with OA (3/16, 19%; p<0.1) or RA (1/13, 8%; p<0.05) and the autoimmune disease control sera from poly/dermatomyosis (2/15, 13%; p<0.05), and patients with RA (3/30, 10%; p<0.01), SLE (1/30, 3%; p<0.01), and SSc (1/30, 3%; p<0.01). The prevalence of APA seroreactivity was also significantly higher in patients with severe FM (17/28, 61%) compared to patients with mild FM (11/37, 30%; p<0.05) and controls (4/21, 19%; p<0.01). In addition, both mean threshold and mean tolerance dolorimetry scores were significantly lower in the seropositive patients with mild FM (1.33+/-0.21, 1.95+/-0.25, respectively) compared to the seronegative patients (1.83+/-0.08, 2.53+/-0.11; p<0.05 for both comparisons, respectively).
Conclusion:
These results reveal that an immunological response, production of anti-polymer antibodies, is associated with a subset of patients with FM. The results also suggest that the APA assay may be an objective marker in the diagnosis and assessment of FM and may provide additional avenues of investigation into the pathophysiological processes involved in FM.
Insights
Antipolymer antibodies (APA) were found in 47% of fibromyalgia patients, significantly higher than controls. APA presence correlated with increased fibromyalgia severity, suggesting a potential diagnostic marker.
Area of Science:
- Immunology
- Rheumatology
- Clinical Diagnostics
Background:
- Fibromyalgia (FM) is a complex chronic pain disorder with unclear etiology.
- Investigating potential immunological markers could aid in understanding and diagnosing FM.
Purpose of the Study:
- To determine the prevalence of anti-polymer antibodies (APA) in patients with fibromyalgia (FM).
- To compare APA prevalence in FM patients against osteoarthritis (OA), rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and other autoimmune disease controls.
- To assess the correlation between APA presence and FM severity.
Main Methods:
- Sera analysis from 47 FM patients, 16 OA patients, 13 RA patients, and various autoimmune disease control groups (poly/dermatomyositis, RA, SLE, SSc).
- Exclusion of patients with implants or concurrent autoimmune conditions.
- Assay of FM patient sera categorized as severe or mild to correlate seroreactivity with disease severity.
Main Results:
- APA seroreactivity was significantly higher in FM patients (47%) compared to OA (19%), RA (8%), poly/dermatomyositis (13%), RA (10%), SLE (3%), and SSc (3%) controls.
- Prevalence of APA was significantly higher in severe FM (61%) versus mild FM (30%).
- Seropositive mild FM patients exhibited lower pain threshold and tolerance scores compared to seronegative patients.
Conclusions:
- An immunological response, indicated by anti-polymer antibodies (APA), is associated with a subset of fibromyalgia patients.
- The APA assay may serve as an objective marker for FM diagnosis and severity assessment.
- APA detection offers new pathways for investigating the pathophysiology of fibromyalgia.
