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 Clq (ClqAb) and antibodies against human heat shock protein (hsp60) and mycobacterial hsp65 in HIV infected patients. Here the levels of these antibodies were measured in the sera of patients with different autoimmune diseases (123 systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), 55 systemic sclerosis, 33 undifferentiated 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 levels 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 ClqAb and anti-hsp antibodies in any group except a significant (P = 0.011) positive correlation between ClqAb and hsp65 antibodies in the patients with UCTD. These findings indicate that the autoantibodies against Clq are heterogeneous: in different diseases different types of ClqAb may dominate. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.