Little evidence for anti-endothelial cell antibodies in microscopic polyarteritis and Wegener's granulomatosis

• Published in: Nephrology, dialysis, transplantation Vol. 8; no. 2; p. 113
• Main Authors: Varagunam, M, Nwosu, Z, Adu, D, Garner, C, Taylor, C M, Michael, J, Thompson, R A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England 1993
• Subjects: Antibodies, Antineutrophil Cytoplasmic; Autoantibodies - blood; Endothelium, Vascular - immunology; Granulomatosis with Polyangiitis - immunology; Humans; Immunoglobulin G - blood; Peroxidase - immunology; Polyarteritis Nodosa - immunology; Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha - pharmacology
• ISSN: 0931-0509
• DOI: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.ndt.a092401

We studied sera from patients with vasculitis and controls for the presence of anti-endothelial cell antibodies (AECA) and correlated these with disease type, anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies (ANCA) and anti-myeloperoxidase (MPO) antibodies. AECA were detected by a cellular ELISA on cultured human umbilical vein endothelium. AECA were found in the sera of one of 43 patients with microscopic polyarteritis (2%), five of 27 patients with Wegener's granulomatosis (19%), three of 23 patients with an idiopathic glomerulonephritis (13%), none of eight patients with rheumatoid arthritis and three of 12 patients with rheumatoid vasculitis (25%). In patients with a vasculitis AECA titres were higher in sera with a positive ANCA as compared with ANCA negative sera although the difference was not significant (P = 0.0702) and there was no correlation between AECA and anti-MPO titres (r = 0.1171 P = 0.114). AECA binding was not enhanced following upregulation of endothelial ICAM-1 and ELAM-1 by TNF alpha. This study shows that AECA occur infrequently in microscopic polyarteritis and Wegener's granulomatosis, and are not a major antibody system in these vasculitides.