Detection of anticentromere antibodies using cloned autoantigen cenp‐Bl

Abstract
A solid-phase enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay has been established using a cloned fusion protein, Cterm CENP-B [β-gal], as antigen. The fusion protein carries the major epitope of CENP-B, the major centromeric autoantigen. The enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was more sensitive than immunofluorescence techniques in detecting anticentromere antibodies in patients with scleroderma or Raynaud'S disease, and was weakly positive in 3% of normal controls and in 3% of 70 patients with other connective tissue diseases.