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.
Serum from a CREST (Scleroderma syndrome) patient presenting a high titer of anticentromeric antibodies was chosen on the basis of specificity of labeling of cells on slides.
HLA-DR5 is significantly increased in frequency in this series of CREST/PSS patients compared to controls (P less than 0.001), and log linear regression analysis showed that although both DR5 and Gm homozygosity were significant factors determining disease susceptibility, there was no evidence of an interactive effect between these two groups of genes increasing the predisposition to CREST/PSS.
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.