Clinical significance of anti-Ro52 (TRIM21) antibodies non-associated with anti-SSA 60 kDa antibodies: Results of a multicentric study

Ro52 antigen has recently been identified as TRIM21 protein, but the clinical significance of anti-Ro52/TRIM21 antibodies remains controversial. The aim of this multicentric study was to investigate the significance of anti-Ro52 antibodies without anti-SSA/Ro60 antibodies in various connective diseases. Sera were selected by each laboratory using its own method (ELISA, immunodot or Luminex technology), and then performed with ANA Screen BioPlex (TM) reagent (BIO-RAD). Among the 247 screened sera, 155/247 (63%) were confirmed as anti-Ro52 positive and anti-SSA/Ro60 negative. These sera were analyzed for the detection of other antibodies in relation with clinical settings. Isolated anti-Ro52 antibodies were detected in 89/155 (57%) sera. For the remaining sera (66/155), the main antibodies associations were Sm/SmRNP or Chromatin (n = 38; 57%), Jot (n = 17; 26%) and CenpB (n = 9:14%). Clinical data from the 155 patients showed high prevalence in autoimmune diseases (73%) including myositis or dermatomyositis (n = 30), lupus (n = 23);Sjogren and/or sicca syndrome (n = 27); CREST or Systemic sclerosis (n = 11) and autoimmune hepatitis (n = 11). We found that pulmonary manifestations were often associated with the presence of anti-Ro52 antibodies (n = 34,22%), in addition with anti-tRNA synthetases, anti-SRP or anti-Ku antibodies (18/34) or isolated in half of cases (16/34). Separate detection of anti-Ro52 antibodies might be useful in related antisynthetase syndrome diagnosis. The presence of anti-Ro52 antibodies should probably precede development of autoimmune disease and must induce sequential follow-up of positive patients, paiticularly in interstitial lung disease progression. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.