The lupus anticoagulant and its role in thrombosis.

The lupus anticoagulant is usually found in the plasma of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus. Lupus anticoagulants are antibodies to phospholipids and probably to phosphodiester-linked phosphate groups. A high frequency of thrombotic events in patients with lupus anticoagulant has been reported. Nevertheless the pathogenesis of thrombosis in these patients remains unknown. Endothelium which plays a key role in the antithrombogenic-thrombogenic balance could be a target for the lupus anticoagulant and alterations of some endothelial-cell functions could be responsible for the thrombotic events. The effects of the lupus anticoagulant on the phospholipids of the protein C-thrombomodulin complex may be important although evidence of such a reaction in vivo is awaited.