0000000000714321
AUTHOR
Stefan Markus Weiner
Nephrogenic systemic fibrosis--a rapidly progressive disabling disease with limited therapeutic options.
Background Nephrogenic systemic fibrosis (NSF) affects some patients on dialysis after gadolinium contrast agent–enhanced magnetic resonance imaging. It is characterized by progressive skin fibrosis of the extremities, sometimes including the trunk and internal organs. Methods The clinical course of 10 patients with biopsy-proven NSF was analyzed retrospectively with regard to gadolinium exposition, disease onset, and progression of NSF with special emphasis on physical mobility and impact of different therapeutic approaches. Results Despite physiotherapy and different additional therapeutic approaches (eg, immunosuppression, ultraviolet A-1 phototherapy, or extracorporal photopheresis) all…
Identification of α-tubulin as an autoantigen recognized by sera from patients with neuropsychiatric systemic lupus erythematosus.
In a previous study we found in 50% of patients with neuropsychiatric manifestations of systemic lupus erythematosus (NP-SLE) organ specific antibodies to 45-56 kD proteins in a 100,000 g supernatant (SN) from bovine brain mitochondria. Aim of the present study was to identify the corresponding target antigen. A 100,000 g SN from bovine brain mitochondria was applied to SDS-gel electrophoresis. A 50 kD band recognized by sera from patients with NP-SLE in the Western blot (WB) was excised from the gels and applied to mass spectrometry. The identified protein was expressed in Escherichia coli and retested against sera from eleven patients with NP-SLE (severe symptoms n=6, mild symptoms n=5), …