Patients with isolated anti-Ro52 had a wider variety of diseases associated, but among auto-immune diseases they were more prone to inflammatory myositis (OR 10.5 [1.4-81.7], <i>p</i> = 0.02) and inflammatory rheumatism (OR 4.6 [1.6-13.8], <i>p</i> = 0.006) in contrast to systemic lupus (OR 0.2 [0.1-0.3], <i>p</i> < 10<sup>-4</sup>) or primary Sjögren's syndrome (OR 0.1 [0.06-0.2], <i>p</i> < 10<sup>-4</sup>).
Men with lupus had less anti-SSA (21.1 vs 48.1%) and anti-Ro52 (10.5 vs 44.3%) antibodies when compared to women and none of the male patients had anti-SSB antibodies.
Up-regulated expression of Ro52/tripartite motif-containing protein 21 (TRIM21), Ro60/TROVE domain family, member 2 (TROVE2) and lupus LA protein/Sjögren's syndrome antigen B (La/SSB) autoantigens has been described in the salivary gland epithelial cells (SGEC) of patients with Sjögren's syndrome (SS).
Of the two autoantibodies studied, anti-Ro/anti-SSA levels in borderline lupus patients appeared as an important parameter for monitoring/diagnosis of lupus patients.
Autoantibodies to Ro52 are present in patients with lupus and Sjögren's syndrome, but it is not known if these autoantibodies affect the function of Ro52.
The results of this study indicate that the antigenic determinants on Ro52 are different for autoantibodies produced by lupus patients compared with those of SS patients.
Neonatal lupus erythematosus (NLE) is a distinct subset of lupus characterized by cutaneous findings (50%), cardiac conduction defects (50%), and autoantibodies to Ro (SS-A) antigen.
These data demonstrate that anti-Ro(SS-A)/La(SS-B) positive Sjogren's/lupus overlap patients and neonatal lupus syndrome mothers are immunogenetically closely related to each other and appear to be more closely related to both primary Sjogren's syndrome and subacute lupus erythematosus, than to classical systemic lupus erythematosus.