Autoantibodies against lamin C, NA14 and CK15 in primary vasculitides or autoimmune diseases with secondary vasculitis.

Objectives: Autoantibodies may play a role in the pathogenesis of primary vasculitides (PVs) like giant cell arteritis (GCA). We recently identified 3 cytoskeletal proteins (lamin C [laC], nuclear autoantigen of 14kD [NA14] and cytokeratin 15 [CK15]) as autoantigens in GCA and postulated a frequent autoantibody response against these antigens in PVs.

Methods: To test this hypothesis we studied a cohort of patients with PVs (n=61) and healthy individuals (n=27) for the presence of these autoantibodies using a recombinant cDNA expression library.