Antibodies to histones in systemic lupus erythematosus and drug-induced lupus syndromes.

Antihistone antibodies are some of the most frequent autoantibodies in rheumatic diseases and can represent useful diagnostic markers in some autoimmune syndromes. Histone epitopes are often located in accessible regions of chromatin or are conformational determinants resulting from the association of several components. These observations and studies with murine models of lupus strongly support the view that histones play a direct stimulatory role in triggering autoantibody production.