TY - JOUR A2 - Bogdanos, Dimitrios P. AU - Liu, Hui AU - Fu, Rong AU - Wang, Yihao AU - Liu, Hong AU - Li, Lijuan AU - Wang, Honglei AU - Chen, Jin AU - Yu, Hong AU - Shao, Zonghong PY - 2013 DA - 2013/01/31 TI - Detection and Analysis of Autoantigens Targeted by Autoantibodies in Immunorelated Pancytopenia SP - 297678 VL - 2013 AB - Previously, we described a group of patients with hemocytopenia who did not conform to diagnostic criteria of known hematological and nonhematological diseases. Most patients responded well to adrenocortical hormone and/or high-dose intravenous immunoglobulin treatment, indicating that cytopenia might be mediated by autoantibodies. Autoantibodies were detected on the membrane of various bone marrow (BM) hemopoietic cells by bone marrow mononuclear-cell-Coombs test or flow cytometric analysis. Thus, the hemocytopenia was termed “Immunorelated Pancytopenia” (IRP) to distinguish it from other pancytopenias. Autoantigens in IRP were investigated by membrane protein extraction from BM hemopoietic cells and BM supernatant from IRP patients. Autoantibody IgG was detected in the BM supernatant of 75% of patients (15/20), which was significantly higher than that in aplastic anemia, myelodysplastic syndrome, or autoimmune hemolytic anemia patients (0%) and normal healthy controls (0%) (P<0.01). Autoantigens had approximate molecular weights of 25, 30, 47.5, 60, 65, 70, and 80 kDa, some of which were further identified by mass fingerprinting. This study identified that a G-protein-coupled receptor 156 variant and chain P, a crystal structure of the cytoplasmic domain of human erythrocyte band-3 protein, were autoantigens in IRP. Further studies are needed to confirm the antigenicity of these autoantigens. SN - 2314-8861 UR - https://doi.org/10.1155/2013/297678 DO - 10.1155/2013/297678 JF - Clinical and Developmental Immunology PB - Hindawi Publishing Corporation KW - ER -