Anti-DFS70 Antibodies Among Patient and Healthy Population Cohorts in China: Results From a Multicenter Training Program Showing Spontaneous Abortion and Pediatric Systemic Autoimmune Rheumatic Diseases Are Common in Anti-DFS70 Positive Patients.

Objective: Anti-DFS70 antibodies correlating with the nuclear dense fine speckled (DFS) pattern in the HEp-2 indirect immunofluorescence assay (IFA) are less common in patients with systemic autoimmune rheumatic disease (SARD) than in healthy subjects and their clinical associations remain elusive. We hosted a multi-center HEp-2 IFA training program to improve the ability of clinical laboratories to recognize the DFS pattern and to investigate the prevalence and relevance of anti-DFS70 antibodies. Methods: DFS pattern sera identified by HEp-2 IFA in 29 centers in China were redirected to a central laboratory for anti-DFS70 testing by line immunoblot assay (LIA), enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and IFA with HEp-2 ELITE/DFS70-KO substrate. Anti-extractable nuclear antigen antibodies were measured by LIA and the clinical relevance was examined in adult and pediatric patients. Results: HEp-2 IFA positive rate and DFS pattern in positive sera were 36.2% (34,417/95,131) and 1.7% (582/34,417) in the patient cohort, and 10.0% (423/4,234) and 7.8% (33/423) in a healthy population, respectively. Anti-DFS70 prevalence among sera presenting the DFS pattern was 96.0, 93.7, and 49.6% by ELISA, LIA, and HEp-2 ELITE, respectively. 15.5% (52/336) of adult and 50.0% (20/40) of pediatric anti-DFS70 positive patients were diagnosed with SARD. Diseases most common in anti-DFS70 positive patients were spontaneous abortion (28.0%) in adults and juvenile idiopathic arthritis (22.5%) in pediatric patients. Conclusion: Accurate DFS pattern identification increased the detection rate of anti-DFS70 antibodies by ELISA and LIA. Anti-DFS70 antibodies are remarkably high in cases of spontaneous abortion and in pediatric SARD patients, but not prevalent in adult SARD patients.

[Detection and analysis of HBV in polymorphonuclear neutrophils of patients with hepatitis B].

OBJECTIVE: To study the infection and replication of hepatitis B virus (HBV) in polymorphonuclear neutrophils of the patients with chronic hepatitis B. METHODS: The neutrophils were isolated and purified by neutrophil isolation medium, and the loads of HBV-DNA in neutrophils were detected by PCR. RESULTS: Positive detection rate of HBV-DNA in neutrophils of chronic hepatitis B patients was 30.95% (13/42), and among them, the HBeAg positive and HBeAg negative ones were 52.94% (9/17) and 16.00%(4/25), respectively. After treatment of adefovir, the positive rate of HBV-DNA in neutrophils of chronic hepatitis B patients was 9.52% (4/42), and among them, the HBeAg positive and HBeAg negative ones were 17.65%(3/17) and 4.00%(1/25), respectively. There were significantly different positive rates in the patients before and after treatment (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: HBV can infect the neutrophils of the patients with chronic hepatitis B to achieve extrahepatic occult infection. Adefovir has a good inhibitory effect against the latent or hidden HBV in neutrophils.