Study of antibodies to histones and histone synthetic peptides in pauciarticular juvenile chronic arthritis.

The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of histone antibodies in early onset pauciarticular juvenile chronic arthritis (JCA), and to assess any association with disease activity in terms of arthritis or uveitis. Forty-four children with early onset pauciarticular JCA have been assessed prospectively using clinical and laboratory parameters. Sera were collected from these patients during clinical follow-up. Some of them had serial measurements during the period of study. Patient sera were analysed for histone antibodies by ELISA. A further study using 30 synthetic peptides of calf thymus core histones was performed by ELISA. Seventy-five per cent of children have IgM antibodies to histone, usually to more than one type. The highest values were anti H3 and H4 antibodies. There was no correlation between the level of anti-histone antibodies and anterior uveitis. There were increased levels of IgG antibodies to histone peptides, in particular the N- and C-terminal peptides of H3 in 70.5% of children. Antibodies to H3 peptides tend to be in patients with chronic anterior uveitis (P = 0.04).