Antibodies to vimentin intermediate filaments in sera from patients with systemic lupus erythematosus.

Sera from patients with systemic lupus erythematosus and from healthy subjects were tested, using immunofluorescence and blotting techniques, for the presence of antibodies to intermediate filaments of the cytoskeleton of human skin fibroblasts. Both techniques showed that antibodies to intermediate filaments were found in a higher proportion of sera from patients (53%) than healthy subjects (9%). The antigen target was found to be the protein band that corresponded to vimentin (Mr 57,000).