Prevalence of antinuclear autoantibodies in the serum of normal blood dornors.

Objective: To examine the presence of serum antinuclear autoantibodies in a healthy population.

Methods: Serum of 500 normal blood donors between 18 and 60 years of age were tested for the presence of autoantibodies. Antinuclear antibodies were detected by indirect immunofluorescence technique using HEp-2 epithelial cells as the substrate.