Levels of antibodies against Clq and 60 kDa family of heat shock proteins in the sera of patients with various autoimmune diseases

Previously a strong positive correlation was found between antibodies to Cl q (ClqAb) and antibodies against human heat shock protein (hsp60) and mycob acterial hsp65 in HIV infected patients. Here the levels of these antibodie s were measured in the sera of patients with different autoimmune diseases (123 systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), 55 systemic sclerosis, 33 undiffer entiated connective tissue disease (UCTD), 27 primary Raynaud syndrome, 21 rheumatoid arthritis (RA). 14 polymyositis/dermatomyositis (PM/DM), and 192 healthy blood donors. The prevalence of Ige ClqAb was found to be high (P < 0.0001 as compared to the healthy controls) only in the SLE group. The le vels of the anti-hsp60 (P = 0.0094) and anti-hsp65 (P = 0.0108) antibodies were high only in the UCTD patients. No correlation was found between the C lqAb and anti-hsp antibodies in any group except a significant (P = 0.011) positive correlation between ClqAb and hsp65 antibodies in the patients wit h UCTD. These findings indicate that the autoantibodies against Clq are het erogeneous: in different diseases different types of ClqAb may dominate. (C ) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.