Heterogeneity of the Ro/SSA antigen and autoanti-Ro/SSA response: evidence of the four antigenically distinct forms.

Precipitating antibodies to the Ro/SSA antigen occur in the sera of 40% of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and in 40-70% of the sera of patients with primary Sjögren's syndrome. Previous work has shown that lymphocyte extracts contain two Ro/SSA antigens with protein moieties of 60 kD and 52 kD and that erythrocyte haemolysate contain two analogous but antigenically distinct Ro/SSA molecules of 60 kD and 54 kD. Frequency analysis of the various specificities in 43 sera with precipitating anti-Ro/SSA and studies with affinity-eluted antibodies suggest that the lymphocyte 60 kD and erythrocyte 60 kD Ro/SSA molecules are related as are the lymphocyte 52 kD and erythrocyte 54 kD Ro/SSA proteins. Anti-Ro/SSA sera when accompanied by other precipitins (anti-La/SSB and anti-U1RNP) react preferentially with certain Ro/SSA isoforms. Evidence is also presented for a 45 kD form of Ro/SSA. These data suggest that the antigenic heterogeneity of the Ro/SSA antigen is immunologically relevant and that there are two families of Ro/SSA antigens; one comprising of the two 60-kD proteins in the erythrocyte and lymphocyte and the other the erythrocyte 54 kD and lymphocyte 52 kD Ro/SSA proteins, respectively.