An antigenic region of topoisomerase I in DNA polymerase chain reaction-generated fragments recognized by autoantibodies of scleroderma patients.

Topoisomerase cDNA and various fragments thereof generated by the DNA polymerase chain reaction were cloned into plasmid expression vectors (pET series) and the expressed polypeptides were probed with scleroderma sera from seven different patients immunoreactive with topoisomerase I. All sera reacted selectively with a region between amino acid residues 405 and 484 of human topoisomerase I. This conclusion is based on loss of reactivity when this region was omitted from larger pieces. Other portions of topoisomerase I were not reactive with these autoantibodies. At least two different epitopes appear to be recognized within this region by different sera based on differences in immunoreactivity of the 405-484 region when expressed as C-terminal, N-terminal or internally within a peptide.