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Detection of Antiendothelial Cell Antibodies in
Patients with Connective Tissue Diseases by Flow Cytometry and
Their Relation to Endothelial Cell Activation
M. HORVÁTHOVÁ, E. JAHNOVÁ, Š. NYULASSY
Institute of Preventive and Clinical Medicine, Department of
Clinical Immunology, Bratislava, Slovak Republic
Received December 10,
2001
Accepted March 8, 2002
Summary
Antiendothelial cell antibodies (AECA) have been detected by
flow cytometry analysis in 23 out of 80 patients with connective
tissue diseases. Ten out of 19 serum samples from patients with
systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) were positive. These
antibodies were not detectable in healthy donors. We examined
the capacity of serum samples to induce endothelial cell
activation by modulating cell adhesion molecule expression on
human umbilical vein endothelial cells. We found that sera from
both AECA-positive and AECA-negative patient groups induced a
significantly higher expression of E-selectin compared to
healthy controls (P<0.05). There were no differences in the
ICAM-1 on VCAM-1 expression. Our data suggest that increased
E-selectin expression in activated endothelium in patients with
various connective tissue disorders is not related to the
production of AECA.
Key
words
Antiendothelial cell antibodies · Adhesion molecules ·
Expression · Flow cytometry
Reprint
requests
RNDr. M. Horváthová, Ph.D., Department of Clinical Immunology,
Institute of Preventive and Clinical Medicine, Limbová 14, 833
01 Bratislava 37, Slovak Republic. E-mail:
horvat@upkm.sk
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