ABSTRACT
Objective To explore the correlation of anti-ganglioside antibodies with clinical features of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Methods Samples of serum were collected from 48 patients with SLE. Three were male and 45 were female. Their average age was 33±12 (15～59). The serum anti-ganglioside antibodies of 10 patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), 4 with Sj(o)gren's syndrome (SS), 1 patient with mixed connective tissue disease (MCTD), 1 with polymyositis (PM), and 97 healthy controls(HC) were alsoexamined. Levels of anti-GM1-IgM/IgG, anti-GQ1b-IgM/IgG antibodies in the serum were examined by amodified ELISA. Anti-dsDNA-IgG antibody of SLE was tested according to the ELISA kit protocol. The associations of anti-GM1-IgM/IgG and anti-GQ1b-IgM/IgG antibodies with clinical features were analyzed. x2test, one-way ANOVA, Dunnett t-test were used for statistical analysis. Results By using modified ELISA,the upper limit of reference value of anti-GM1-IgM/IgG antibodies, anti -GQ1b-IgM/IgG antibodies in the serum of Chinese SLE patients were 0.411, 0.408, 0.481 and 0.441 res-pectively. 19% patients with SLE were sero-positive for anti-GM1 antibody, 4% for IgM antibody isotype and 15% for IgG antibody isotype. Anti-GM1-IgG antibody was significantly increased in the serum of patients with SLE (0.33±0.09), higher than that of the HC (0.27±0.05) (P<0.05), RA (0.29±0.08), SS(0.27±0.06), PM ( 0.288 ), but one of the MCTD( 0.423 ).There was no significant associations between anti-GM1-IgM/IgG, anti-GQ1b-IgM/IgG antibodies and NPSLE and anti-dsDNA-IgG antibody (P>0.05). Conclusion Peripheral autoimmune response against GM1 can be detected in SLE patients, and it may be involved in the pathogenesis of SLE. No association of antiGM1-IgM/IgG antibodies or anti-GQ1b-IgM/IgG antibodies with clinical features of SLE can be discovered.