Systemic lupus erythematosus assays

AOSD, adult onset Still disease AS, ankylosing spondylitis CA, crystal-induced arthritis ERA, enthesitis-related arthritis JA, juvenile arthritis PA, psoriatic arthritis RA, rheumatoid arthritis SE, synovium explants SLE, systemic lupus erythematosus SPCIA, solid phase 2 site chemiluminescent immunometric assay RP, relapsing polychondritis. 

Fig. 5. Serial study of a woman with systemic lupus erythematosus showing correlation among levels of immune complexes measured by the Raji assay, complement levels, antibodies to native DNA, and clinical activity. (Reproduced with permission, A. N. Theofilopoulos, C. B. Wilson, and F. J. Dixon,. Clin. Invest. 57, 169-182, 1976, by copyright permission of the American Society for Clinical Investigation.)...

A13, Anderson, C. L., and Stillman, W. S., Raji cell assay for immune complexes. Evidence for detection of Raji-directed immunoglobulin G antibody in sera from patients with systemic lupus erythematosus. J. Clin. Invest. 66, 353-360 (1980). 

Inman, R., Fong, J., Pussell, B. A., Ryan, P. J., and Hughes, G. R., The Clq binding assay in systemic lupus erythematosus Discordance with disease activity. Arthritis Rheum. 23, 1282-1286 (1980). 

There are a number of other diseases that have been associated with aberrations of serum thymic hormone bioactivity, and these are listed in Table 1. It is noteworthy that serum thymic hormone bioactivity has been found to be low in 25% to 50% of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (Bach et al., 1975 Twomey et al., 1979 Iwata et al., 1981 Lewis et al., 1981), Hodgkin s disease (Schulof et al., 1981), and acute lymphoblastic leukemia (Twomey et al., 1980). In all of these studies it has not been possible to correlate abnormalities of serum thymic hormone bioactivity with specific defects of T cell immunity. Thus, it remains to be established whether low serum thymic hormone levels in autoimmune or neoplastic disorders reflect an etiologic role for thymus dysfunction in these disease processes or merely a secondary manifestation of the diseases themselves. In patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia it was demonstrated that the low bioactivity detected in the Twomey assay was related to a circulating inhibitor of thymopoietinlike bioactivity (Twomey et al., 1980). Thus, it is possible that other secondary immunodeficiencies that are associated with depressed serum thymic-hormonelike bioactivity may also reflect the presence of circulating inhibitors to thymic hormones rather than an absolute deficiency in their production. 

Assays show that shed and solubilized TAM (Tyro3, Axl, MER) receptors circulate in high levels in the blood of patients with active systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). These high titers of solubilized receptors correlated directly with disease activity, especially with that of lupus nephritis of low Clq and high anti-DNA antibody levels. In contrast, solubilized sMER levels did not correlate... 

Kanai Y, Tauchi M, Aotsuka S, Yokohari R (1982) A simple and rapid microenzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for antibodies to poly(ADP-ribose) in systemic lupus erythematosus. J Immunol Methods 53 355-365... 

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