Serological Screening Of Autoantigens Associated With Vasculitis In Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

OBJECTIVE: To screen autoantigens associated with vasculitis in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) by serological analysis of recombinant cDNA expression library (SEREX).METHODS: A cDNA expression library derived from human microvascular endothelial cells (HMVEC) was screened with pooled sera from patients with SLE. Pooled sera were preadsorbed to reduce the background sera activity. Obtained preadsorbed pooled sera of patients were used for immunoscreening. Immunoscreening procedure was done according to the instruction manual provided by the manufacturer (Stratagene).RESULTS: Eleven distinct positive clones were identified. Bioinformatic analysis revealed these 11 positive clones encoding three different proteins: SSA,SSB and YB-1. There were no reports that YB-1 was associated with vasculitis in SLE up to now.CONCLUSION: It is the first time that YB-1 was found associated with vasculitis in SLE.SEREX has offer a new strategy to explore the autoantigens relative to SLE. By SEREX, maybe we can find â‘ autoantigen...