IgG and IgA antibody titers against human heat-shock protein (hsp60) in sera of rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis patients

 To learn whether heat-shock proteins (HSP) are involved in the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), antirecombinant human heat-shock protein 60 (hsp60) IgG and IgA in sera of RA and osteoarthritis (OA) patients were investigated. Only the anti-hsp60 IgG titer of seropositive (RF-positive) patients was found to be elevated. Although RF titers of the sera of seropositive RA patients were increased, there was no correlation between the individual anti-hsp60 IgG titer and the corresponding RF titer. In contrast, all the anti-hsp60 IgA titers of the sera of OA, seronegative RA, and seropositive RA patients were found to be elevated. Among them, only the serum IgA concentration of seropositive RA patients was increased. Thus, it was suggested that the increased anti-hsp60 IgG reflects the pathogenesis of RA and its activity. It was also suggested that the increased anti-hsp60 IgA response reflects an involvement of hsp60 in the pathogenesis of arthritides rather than the pathogenesis of RA. Received: August 8, 2001 / Accepted: June 5, 2002 Acknowledgments This study was supported in part by a grant-in-aid from the Japanese Ministry of Education, Science, and Culture. We thank Dr. Yashima for kindly providing normal adult serum samples. We thank Drs. Nishimiya and Hiraoka for technical help. Correspondence to:S. Watanabe