Clinical relapse in systemic lupus erythematosus: correlation with antecedent elevation of urinary free light-chain immunoglobulin.
This paper reports preliminary evidence suggesting that measurements of free light-chain Ig (FLIg) in urine may represent quantitative markers of in vivo polyclonal B-cell activation. Thus, longitudinal levels of urinary FLIg in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus ( SLE) may be used to track or monitor the in vivo immunopathologic B-cell activity of SLE and be helpful in predicting a disease relapse. Our findings showed that dramatic rises in urinary FLIg occurred during asymptomatic intervals that preceded by 4-8 weeks the first symptomatic signs of acute SLE relapse. These results suggest that a sizable lead time may exist between the occurrence of immunopathologic B-cell stimulation and the resultant symptoms and tissue damage of immune complex-induced acute inflammation. In these studies the measurement of urinary FLIg was accomplished by an indirect method using ng-sensitive radioimmunoassays (RIAs) that measured isotypic IgG, IgA, IgM, total kappa-Ig, and total lambda-Ig. As a control for the assessment of renal tubular function and the excretion of low molecular weight proteins in SLE patients, longitudinal measurements of beta-2-microglobulin ( B2M) and lysozyme were made using a novel solid-phase 3H-biotin RIA technique.[1]References
- Clinical relapse in systemic lupus erythematosus: correlation with antecedent elevation of urinary free light-chain immunoglobulin. Hopper, J.E., Sequeira, W., Martellotto, J., Papagiannes, E., Perna, L., Skosey, J.L. J. Clin. Immunol. (1989) [Pubmed]
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