High Prevalence of Autoantibodies Against the HMG Protein SSRP1 in Sera from Patients with SLE

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High Prevalence of Autoantibodies Against the Nuclear High Mobility

Group (HMG) Protein SSRP1 in Sera from Patients with Systemic Lupus

Erythematosus, But Not Other Rheumatic Diseases

PIERA SANTORO, MARCO DE ANDREA, GIUSEPPE MIGLIARETTI, CLAUDIO TRAPANI,

SANTO LANDOLFO, and MARISA GARIGLIO

ABSTRACT.

Objective. To evaluate the presence of autoantibodies to the high

mobility group (HMG) structure specific recognition protein 1 (SSRP1) in

sera from patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) or other

rheumatic diseases.

Methods. Antibodies to SSRP1(anti-SSRP1) were measured in sera from

patients with SLE, Sjögren's syndrome (SS), ulcerative colitis (UC),

systemic sclerosis (SSc), rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and sera from

healthy individuals by both an enzyme-linked immunoassay (ELISA) and

Western blotting (WB) using the recombinant SSRP1 N-terminus as antigen.

Results. We found 28.8% of the sera from patients with SLE contained

anti-SSRP1 by both ELISA and WB assay, compared to 8.3% of the sera from

healthy individuals. When the 40 sera from patients with other

autoimmune diseases were tested, only 2 sera (5%) from individuals with

SS showed a moderate reactivity to SSRP1 in both ELISA and WB assays.

Conclusion. The results show that anti-SSRP1 can be identified in sera

from patients with SLE, but not with other rheumatic diseases and may

thus help the diagnosis of SLE in the presence of appropriate clinical

findings. (J Rheumatol 2002;29:90-3)