Identification of new autoantibody specificities directed at proteins involved in the transforming growth factor β pathway in patients with systemic sclerosis

Table 1 Characteristics of pools of sera used as sources of IgG^a

Main clinical characteristics	Autoimmunity	Number of pools tested ^b
Healthy blood donors	No ANA	1
dcSSc
No visceral involvement	No ANA	1
Interstitial lung disease	ATA	1
Scleroderma renal crisis	Anti-RNA-pol III Abs	1
lcSSc
Pulmonary arterial hypertension	ACA	1
No visceral involvement	ACA	1
dcSSc
Scleroderma renal crisis	ANA with unidentified specificity	1
Pulmonary arterial hypertension	ANA with unidentified specificity	1
Interstitial lung disease	ANA with unidentified specificity	2
No visceral involvement	ANA with unidentified specificity	1
lcSSc
Digital ulcers	ANA with unidentified specificity	1
Pulmonary arterial hypertension	ANA with unidentified specificity	1
Interstitial lung disease	ANA with unidentified specificity	1
No visceral involvement	ANA with unidentified specificity	2

^aAbs: antibodies; ACA: anticentromere antibody; ANA: antinuclear antibody; anti-RNA-pol III Abs: anti-RNA polymerase III antibodies; ATA: antitopoisomerase I antibody; dcSSc: diffuse cutaneous systemic sclerosis; lcSSc: limited cutaneous systemic sclerosis; SSc: systemic sclerosis. ^bA pool of sera from 12 healthy blood donors was tested as a control. Immunoglobulin G reactivities were tested in pools of three sera from patients with the same phenotype of SSc.

ISSN: 1478-6362