TY - JOUR AU - Grypiotis, P. AU - Ruffatti, A. AU - Cozzi, F. AU - Sinico, R.A. AU - Tonello, M. AU - Radice, A. AU - Favaro, M. AU - Todesco, S. PY - 2003/12/30 Y2 - 2024/03/28 TI - Prevalence and clinical significance of cathepsin G antibodies in systemic sclerosis JF - Reumatismo JA - Reumatismo VL - 55 IS - 4 SE - Articles DO - 10.4081/reumatismo.2003.256 UR - https://www.reumatismo.org/reuma/article/view/reumatismo.2003.256 SP - 256-262 AB - Objectives: To evaluate the prevalence and clinical significance of cathepsin G antibodies in patients affected with systemic sclerosis (SSc, scleroderma). Methods: 115 patients affected by SSc, 55 (47,8%) with diffuse scleroderma (dSSc) and 60 (52,2%) with limited scleroderma (lSSc), were tested for cathepsin G antibodies by ELISA method. Moreover these sera were evaluated by indirect immunofluorescence (IIF) on ethanol and formalin fixed human neutrophils. Results: By means of the ELISA method 16 (13,9%) patients were found to be sera positive for anti-cathepsin G, 2 (12.5%) of which showed a perinuclear fluorescence pattern (P-ANCA) and 4 (25%) an atypical ANCA staining, while 10 (62,5%) were negative on IIF. The IIF on scleroderma sera revealed 5 (4,3%) P-ANCA and 18 (15,7%) atypical ANCA patterns. The anti-cathepsin G antibodies significantly prevailed in scleroderma sera (p=0.02) when their frequency was compared with that of healthy controls; while they were not significantly associated to any clinical or serological features of SSc patients. Conclusions: The anti-cathepsin G antibodies were significantly frequent in scleroderma sera; however, no clinical correlations were found. Thus, the significance of their presence in SSc still needs to be clarified. ER -