ORGENTEC Autoimmunity Blog

Covering Autoimmune Diseases

Tag: anti-centromere-B

Portrait of the HEp2 cell, the pet of immunofluorescence professionals

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HEp2 cells -- centromere B

Anti-Centromere B on HEp2 cells

HEp2 cells are held dear in autoimmune diagnostics. They are invaluable for people engaged in analysing autoantibodies, as E. coli is for molecular biologists or mice for toxicologists.

In spite of a wide range of other suitable methods and technologies, determination of autoantibodies with indirect immuno-fluorescence assays (IFA) on human epithelioma (HEp2) cells still contributes significantly to the diagnosis of autoimmune diseases. The widely recognised advantages of this method are high sensitivity and a broad spectrum of antibodies that can be analysed simultaneously. In addition to mere detection of antibodies a characteristic fluorescence pattern and staining of metaphase and cytoplasmic cells offer supplementary information.

When an autoimmune disease is suspected, the HEp-2 test usually is the first line test. Any positive result is then followed up by a step-wise diagnostic approach, including other immunological tests like ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) for single antibody specificities or immunoblot tests.
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Liver Disease Diagnostics: Antibody-based Diagnosis of Autoimmune Liver Diseases

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Liver Disease Diagnostics: Antibody-Based Diagnosis of Autoimmune Liver Disease

For the launch of our Liver-9-Line immunoblot test (to our press release “Liver Disease Diagnostics by Immunoblot” of May 16, 2011), I dug through a pile of literature on the topic of autoantibody-based diagnosis of autoimmune diseases of the liver. In the last week I picked it all up again and worked through it systematically.

This picture shows the interiour surface of the liver. It's a reproduction of a lithograph plate from Gray's Anatomy.

The interior surface of the liver. A reproduction of a lithograph plate from Gray’s Anatomy.

The reason for my renewed interest is that we brought four more ELISA tests for liver diagnostics to the market two weeks ago. They are the Anti-LKM-1, Anti-SLA, Anti-gp210, and Anti-Sp100 tests, all designed for fully automated autoimmune diagnosis with our Alegria system. All four test systems assist the formulation of a diagnosis when autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) and primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) are suspected, or for differential diagnosis when another disorder of the liver is assumed. (more…)

Autoantibodies precede manifestation of Lupus by years

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Antibodies to various autoantigens may be present in sera of patients who will develop Lupus erythematosus up to seven years before onset of disease symptoms

 

Immunoflurescence image of anti-dsDNA-antibodies for the diagnosis of SLE

Autoantibodies against dsDNA are diagnostic markers for Systemic Lupus Erythematosus.

Autoantibodies are specific and sensitive biomarkers for autoimmune diseases and indispensible diagnostic tools. They may also be involved in pathogenic processes underlying the disease and will potentially occur in sera of apparently healthy people long before onset of the first symptoms.

C. Eriksson, S. Raantapaa-Dalquist and their colleagues from Umeå University in Sweden have focused on this preclinical phase in the development of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE). (more…)

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