More than 100 sera from patients with sclerodermaCREST (calcinosis, Raynaud phenomenon, esophageal dismotility, sclerodactyly, telangiectasia) were tested in order to detect antigenic nuclear components of the field bean Vicia faba (2n = 12).
In addition, one of these eight siblings has showed immunological findings of autoimmune disease for years but has not developed clinical symptoms.This family was studied by Soppi et al. in 1982; one member of the family has since then developed primary biliary cirrhosis and incomplete CREST type scleroderma.
In this study we utilized a kinetochore-specific antiserum derived from human patients with the autoimmune disease sclerodermaCREST as an immunofluorescent probe to examine kinetochores of the two muntjac species.
When these preparations are incubated with anticentromere serum from a human CRESTscleroderma patient and then with rhodamine-conjugated antihuman IgG, fluorescence appears in the form of paired dots, the same pattern found in whole metaphase chromosomes.