Auto-antibodies to vascular endothelial cadherin in humans: association with autoimmune diseases

To identify patients with autoimmune diseases who are at high risk of developing vascular cell dysfunction, early biomarkers must be identified. This study was designed to detect and characterize circulating autoantibodies to VE-cadherin (AAVEs) in patients with early-stage autoimmune diseases. An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was developed to capture autoantibodies, using a recombinant human VE-cadherin fragment covering the extracellular domains as a target antigen. AAVEs specificity for the target antigen was confirmed by western blotting. Basal AAVEs levels were determined for healthy donors ( n =75). Sera from patients ( n =100) with various autoimmune diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis ( n =23), systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE, n =31), systemic sclerosis ( n =30), and Behçet’s disease (BD, n =16) were also tested. Levels of AAVEs were significantly higher in rheumatoid arthritis ( P