Sequential use of immunoblots for characterization of autoantibody specificities.

Sera of patients with systemic autoimmune diseases frequently contain autoantibodies to nuclear autoantigens. Immunoblotting of recombinant and native autoantigens is a commonly used technique for the identification and characterization of autoantibody specificities. Here, we describe an easy procedure that facilitates the comparison of antibody specificities by reusing the same immunoblot at least three times in order to detect an abundantly expressed autoantigen in total cellular extracts.