Autoantibody profile in rat kidney-stomach substrate in the São Lucas Hospital of PUCRS <b>[Abstract in English]</b>

Abstract

Objective: This article describes the autoantibody profile using rat kidney-stomach substrate in a tertiary center in a year period.
Material and methods: The design was a case series, being results obtained from the data bank of the Immunology Section of the Clinical Pathology Laboratory of Saint Lucas Hospital of PUCRS.
Results: In 262 patients (68% females) previosly selected by clinical trial, we evaluated the antibody profile in rat kidney-stomach substrate by indirect immunofluorescence. Anti-smooth muscle antibodies predominated (31%), followed by anti-reticulin antibodies (27%), antimitochondrial antibodies (24%), anti-gastric parietal cells antibodies (21%), anti-”brush border” antibodies (4%) and liver-kidney microsome antibodies (0.4%). The majority of patients with a positive test for anti-smooth muscle antibodies had titers below 1/80 (cutoff for autoimmune hepatitis). Anti-ribosome antibodies were not detected in any patient. Apart from the liverkidney microsome antibody (seen in one male), a female predominance was observed for the other autoantibodies described; this predominance, nevertheless, was statistically significant only for antimitochondrial antibodies (P = 0.04).
Conclusion: This finding corroborates a possible relationship of genetic and hormonal factors in autoimmunity.
KEY WORDS: SUBSTRATES; KIDNEY; STOMACH; RATS; AUTOANTIBODIES; MUSCLE, SMOOTH; MITOCHONDRIA, MUSCLE; ANTIBODIES; RETICULIN/immunology; HEPATITIS, AUTOIMMUNE; LIVER CIRRHOSIS, BILIARY.