Antibody to rheumatoid arthritis associated nuclear antigen (RANA) in familial rheumatoid arthritis.

A search was made for the presence of antibody to the rheumatoid arthritis (RA) associated nuclear antigen (RANA) in the sera of 57 affected and unaffected members of 10 families with multiple members affected with RA. While anti-RANA was frequently observed among the seropositive affected individuals with definite or classical RA (60%), it was less frequently observed among those family members who had incompletely expressed disease, and rarely among normal close family members including those sharing haplotypes with the affected index case. An HLA haplotype containing B8, DR3 was more frequently seen among anti-RANA positive (61%) than anti-RANA negative (44%) RA patients. These data do not support a primary early role for the Epstein-Barr virus related antigen RANA in the etiology of RA. They may indicate a possible influence of the complete haplotype HLA-B8, DR3 on the expression of anti-RANA in established RA.