Antibodies against a novel nucleolar and cytoplasmic antigen (p105-p42) present in the sera of patients with a subset of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) with signs of scleroderma.

We identified three patients (two of them relatives) with RA and signs of scleroderma whose sera contained a high titre of IgG class antibodies against the nucleoli and the nucleoplasm of cells of different mammalian origins. Sera from these patients uniformly immunoprecipitated four polypeptides, from a 35S-methionine-labelled HeLa cell extract, whose mol. wts were 120, 105, 95 and 42 kD.

Different strains of donor parental lymphoid cells induce different models of chronic graft-versus-host disease in murine (Balb/c x A/J)F1 hybrid hosts.

The induction of a chronic graft-versus-host (cGVH) disease in (Balb/c x A/J)F1 mice by the intravenous injection of either Balb/c or A/J parental lymphoid cells led to the development of two different models of disease. In this paper we compared the clinical aspects and the antigen specificities which recognized the autoantibodies developed by the animals of these two models of cGVH disease. Renal disease, alopecia, and purpura lesions were common in both models, although their frequency and intensity varied between groups.

Identification of protein components reactive with anti-PM/Scl autoantibodies.

The PM/Scl antigen from mammalian cells has been characterized as a nucleolar and nucleoplasmic molecular complex containing at least 16 polypeptides ranging in molecular weight from 110 to 20 kD. Of these polypeptides, we have found those of 68, 39 and 20 kD to be in a phosphorilated form. Whereas the entire complex was precipitated by all the anti-PM/Scl sera tested, in immunoblots the antibodies specifically recognized determinants on the 110-kD protein.