Standardization of autoimmune diagnostics in Germany: activities of the German group in the European Autoimmune Standardization Initiative.

The German Regional Group of EASI was established during the annual Meeting of the German Society of Immunology in Kiel in September 2005. Since this initial informative meeting, an active core group of about a dozen rheumatologists, immunologists, and laboratory specialists has been generating starter projects. In general, these projects do focus on clinically associated diagnostic questions, and do integrate a variety of specialists with profound knowledge in several related subjects.

Molecular phylogeny and taxonomic revision of Chlamydomonas (Chlorophyta). I. Emendation of Chlamydomonas Ehrenberg and Chloromonas Gobi, and description of Oogamochlamys gen. nov. and Lobochlamys gen. nov.

The genus Chlamydomonas (including Chloromonas) is one of the largest green algal genera comprising more than 600 species. To initiate a comprehensive analysis of the phylogeny and systematics of the genus, we determined nuclear-encoded SSU rRNA sequences from 32 strains of Chlamydomonas, Chloromonas and Chlorogonium with emphasis on oogamous taxa and related strains, and incorporated these into global molecular phylogenetic analyses of 132 strains of Chlorophyceae. In addition, we studied the morphology and reproduction of oogamous and related strains by light microscopy.

Autoantibodies against human calpastatin in rheumatoid arthritis: epitope mapping and analysis of patient sera.

Autoantibodies against calpastatin have recently been described to be highly prevalent in sera of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). When the sera of 45 patients with RA were analysed for autoantibodies against calpastatin by a newly developed enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), only four sera (8.9%) tested positive, which is not significantly different from the frequency observed in healthy controls.

Anti-phospholipid-antibodies in patients with relapsing polychondritis.

Relapsing polychondritis (RP) is an extremely rare multisystemic disease thought to be of autoimmune origin. In order to assess if RP is associated with anti-phospholipid antibodies (aPL), clinical data and sera of 21 patients with RP were collected in a multicentre study. Concentration of anti-cardiolipin antibodies (aCL) (IgG-, IgM- and IgA-isotypes), anti-phosphatidylserine-antibodies (aPS) (IgG- and IgM-isotypes) and anti-beta-2-glycoprotein I-antibodies (a beta 2 GPI) were measured by ELISA.

Autoantibodies against the protease inhibitor calpastatin: a new risk factor for venous thrombosis?

Autoantibodies reactive against human calpastatin were detected by screening a cDNA expression library with the serum of a 53 year old white female patient with a history of venous thrombosis and suspected antiphospholipid syndrome. When further sera were analyzed it could be shown that > 90% of calpastatin autoantibodies, detected by Western blotting against the partial calpastatin clone, react with the C-terminal amino acids of the protein. Therefore, an ELISA based on a synthetic peptide containing the C-terminal 27 amino acids of calpastatin was developed and 205 healthy blood donors and 138 random sera from hospital patients were analyzed.