COMPARISON OF HUMAN-TUMOR CELLS (HEP-2) AND RAT-LIVER FOR THE DETECTION OF ANTI-NUCLEAR ANTIBODIES BY INDIRECT IMMUNOFLUORESCENCE

  • 1 January 1984
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 42  (5) , 363-369
Abstract
Indirect immunofluorescent detection of anti-nuclear antibodies was conducted on sections of rat liver and on smears of human Hep 2 tumor cells in the serum of 1017 patients. Overall, the Hep 2 cells gave titers superior by 1 or 2 dilutions. Taking into account this difference, a good agreement was observed between the 2 cellular reagents in 83% of the sera tested. The divergences, which affect almost 1/2 of the positive sera, are largely due to the presence of anti-centromere antibodies, anti-nuclear antibodies giving a patchy "M 3" appearance to the Hep 2 cells and, most importantly, anti-nucleolar antibodies. Such differences demonstrate that there are major qualitative or quantitative antigenic differences between the nuclei of rat hepatocytes and those of Hep 2 cells. Although technically rat liver and Hep 2 cells were fairly easy to use and interpret, only a large comparative study of human pathology will be able to determine which is the better reagent for the routine detection of anti-nuclear antibodies.