Antibodies from patients with mixed connective tissue disease react with heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein or ribonucleic acid (hnRNP/RNA) of the nuclear matrix.

The sera of patients with mixed connective tissue disease (MCTD) have high titers of antibodies directed against nuclear U1-ribonucleoprotein (U1-RNP). This antigen is easily extracted from nuclear preparations with physiologic saline and from tissue sections with 0.1 HCl, leaving the nucleic acids and nuclear matrix behind. When U1-RNP is extracted from HEp-2 cells with 0.1 N HCl, the sera of 32/32 patients with MCTD react with another antigen that is exposed by the extraction procedure. This antigen is not destroyed by trypsin and deoxyribonuclease 1 treatment but is sensitive to both purified ribonuclease A and purified micrococcal nuclease. Absorption studies showed that the antibody reacting with this antigen cannot be absorbed by sheep red blood cells coated with extracts of rabbit thymus that contain U1-RNP. Radioimmunoassay showed that the reaction of the unadsorbed antibody was with heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein or ribonucleic acid (hnRNP/RNA) and not with transfer RNA or ribosomal RNA. The hnRNP/RNA antigen is demonstrated as discrete particles in the internucleolar chromatin of interphase cells, but in metaphase cells the antigen is diffusely dispersed. The distribution, solubility, and biochemical characteristics suggest that the antigenic moiety is part of the nuclear matrix. Therefore, MCTD sera contain antibodies that react with at least two species of nuclear RNP: small nuclear RNP (snRNP), as described by others, and a high m.w. hnRNP/RNA bound to the nuclear matrix.