ANTI-GOLGI COMPLEX AUTOANTIBODIES IN A PATIENT WITH SJOGRENS SYNDROME AND LYMPHOMA

  • 1 January 1982
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 49  (3) , 579-586
Abstract
During routine immunofluorescence studies of the serum of a patient with Sjogren''s syndrome and lymphoma, antibodies giving a cytoplasmic pattern were detected which did not correspond to previously described patterns found for autoantibodies. Using different cells and tissues as substrates for indirect immunofluorescence, including rat liver, rat small bowel, rat testicle, human thyroid, guinea pig plasma cells and cultured human fibroblasts, the cytoplasmic structure to which these autoantibodies are directed seems to be the Golgi complex, a conclusion supported by histochemical studies. These antibodies were absorbed by isolated Golgi vesicles. The autoantibodies are of IgG and IgA classes, and the antigen(s) with which they react is (are) resistant to treatment with DNAase and RNAase. None of the sera from 50 normal individuals, 7 patients with Sjogren''s syndrome (5 of them primary and 2 associated with rheumatoid arthritis; none of them with lymphoma), 25 patients with mixed connective tissue disease, 10 patients with systemic lupus erythematosus and 5 patients with progressive systemic sclerosis, had antibodies directed against this cytoplasmic specificity, as determined by indirect immunofluorescence. This is the 1st time that autoantibodies directed to the Golgi complex are reported.