Autoantibodies in system sclerosis

Abstract EN

The exact etiology and pathogenesis of systemic sclerosis (SSc) remain obscure.

The disease has been strongly associated with the presence of certain autoantibodies.

This study was carried out to assess the presence of a number of autoantibodies in 15 patients with SSc and to find out their correlation to disease parameters.

These antibodies included antinuclear antibodies (ANA), anti scleroderma 70 (anti Scl-70), antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies (ANCA), antimitochondrial antibodies (AMA) and antismooth muscle antibodies (ASMA).

We used indirect immunofluorscence (IIF) assay for all autoantibodies except anti Scl-70 for which we used the ELISA technique.

Our results revealed that ANA were present in 10 cases (66.7%) and had a clinical correlation to sclerodactly, digital ulcers and musculoskeletal manifestations (p<0.05).

Anti -Scl-70 was detected in 9 patients (60%).

A significant correlation between it and Raynaud’s phenomenon, sclerodactly and digital ulcers was found (p<0.05).

Moreover, ANCA +vity was found in 5 patients (33.3%) and significantly correlated to disease duration (p<0.05).

On the other hand, both AMA and ASMA could not be detected in any patient with SSc.

For future studies we recommend to use a larger number of patients and controls and to assess with more sensitive technique as E LISA for all autoantibodies not only does for anti Scl-70 does as we did in the current study.