Autoantibodies and autoantigens in systemic lupus erythematosus. Analysis by the immunoblotting technique

In recent years, the immunoblotting technique has been introduced in the study of autoimmunity in systemic rheumatic diseases. It allows simultaneous detection of a large spectrum of autoantibodies, both against salt extractable nuclear antigens (ENA) and salt insoluble ones. Moreover, the identification of new antibody specificities has lead to increasing use and usefulness of this technique. The immunoblotting method has been largely employed in the serology of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Because of heterogeneity and policlonality of the immune response, such disease is characterized by a wide range of autoantibodies directed against constituents of nearly all cells. In SLE autoantibodies identified by immunoblotting belong to the categories of anti-histone and anti-non-histone antigen antibodies. In this paper a review of the literature is presented of pertinent data about the clinical significance of autoantibodies in SLE as detected by immunoblotting and of the molecular aspects of related autoantigens.