Measurement of autoimmune response against collagen types I, III, and IV by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and its application in infective endocarditis.

In these enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays for determination of autoantibodies (IgG, IgM) against collagen type I (ACA I), III (ACA III), and IV (ACA IV), we use commercially available antigen preparations. Inhibition curves showed limited cross-reactivity between these different collagen preparations, the major interference being observed after addition of collagen type III in the ACA I procedures. Imprecision (CVs) for high- and low-titer samples ranged between 1.5% and 7.9% (within-run) and 5.5% and 12.7% (between-run) for ACA I, between 2.2-8.7% and 4.5-10.7% for ACA III, and between 1.3-5.9% and 7.4-11.6% for ACA IV. Significantly increased humoral immune response against collagen types I and III (P less than 0.001) could be demonstrated during the first month of infective endocarditis. In contrast, only borderline increases, however constant, of autoimmune response against basement-membrane collagen (ACA IV) were noticed during 90 days of follow-up.