Autoantibodies directed against the protease inhibitor calpastatin in psoriasis

Autoantibodies Directed Against Domain I of Beta2-Glycoprotein I

Patients diagnosed with the antiphospholipid syndrome typically suffer from vascular thrombosis, pregnancy morbidity, or a combination of the two. Due to the high prevalence of these clinical symptoms, the diagnosis of antiphospholipid syndrome is almost completely dependent on the detection of antiphospholipid antibodies in patient plasma. However, not every individual with antiphospholipid an...

Detection of Autoantibodies against Gangliosides in Guillain-Barré Syndrome

Changes in Glycosylation of Alpha-1-Protease Inhibitor in Inflammation (Rheumatoid Arthritis and Crohn\'s Disease)

Alpha-1-proteinase inhibitor (API) is one of the acute phase proteins. Following an inflammatory stimuli the concentration of API increased up to four folds. Accompanying these quantitative changes, there is qualitative alterations in the structure of carbohydrate moiety (glycosylation). To determine the alterations in the glycosylation of API in inflammation, API was isolated from the sera of...

Crossreactive Autoantibodies Directed against Cutaneous and Joint Antigens Are Present in Psoriatic Arthritis

BACKGROUND Psoriatic arthritis (PsA) is a chronic inflammatory disease of unknown origin, characterized by erosions and new bone formation. Diagnosis of PsA is mainly clinical and there are no biomarkers available. Moreover in PsA autoantibodies have not been described so far. Indeed an autoimmune origin has been suggested but never proven. Aim of the study was to investigate the possible prese...

Caspase-mediated fragmentation of calpain inhibitor protein calpastatin during apoptosis.

Two cysteine protease families (caspase and calpain) participate in apoptosis. Here we report that the endogenous calpain inhibitor calpastatin is fragmented by caspase(s) to various extents during early apoptosis in two cell types. In anti-fas or staurosporine-treated Jurkat T-cells, the high-molecular-weight form (HMW) of calpastatin (apparent Mr 110 K) was extensively degraded to immunoreact...