Screening of serum samples from Wegener's granulomatosis patients using antibody microarrays

Wegener's Granulomatosis (WG) is an idiopathic granulomatosis autoimmune vasculitis that primarily affects small vessels and is associated with glomerulonephritis and pulmonary granulomatous vasculitis. Anti‐neutrophil cytoplasmic auto‐antibodies (cANCA) against proteinase‐3 are used to identify WG, but ANCA titers are not present in some patients with the localized disease. The objective of this study was to develop an antibody array to help identify protein expression patterns in serum from patients with WG as compared to normals. The arrays were tested for limits of detection, background, and cross reactivity using standard proteins. The arrays were hybridized with either normal patient serum (n = 30) or with serum samples from a population of WG patients (n = 26) that were age and sex matched. Data analysis and curve fitting of the standard dilution series calculated r2 values and determined a sensitivity of