An autoantibody reactive with nuclei of polymorphonuclear neutrophils: a cell differentiation marker.

An autoantibody that reacted with nuclei of polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMN) was detected at titers of greater than 10 in sera of 25 of 50 patients with rheumatoid arthritis and 36 of 50 with autoimmune chronic active hepatitis but in none of 160 controls comprising 24 patients with alcoholic cirrhosis, 36 with multiple myeloma, and 100 healthy subjects. Through the use of enriched populations of hemopoietic cells, this antibody was shown to be cell-specific, reacting only with the nucleus of the mature neutrophil. It was unreactive with nuclei of progenitor cells in the myeloid series and with nuclei of eosinophils, monocytes, lymphocytes, and thymocytes. It reacted with a determinant that appeared to be a differentiation antigen. This cell-specific autoantibody may prove to be of value in analytical studies of granulocyte maturation.