The Auto-Antibodies on Bone Marrow Cells in the Patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus.

Objective:To explore the pathogenesis of cytopenia in the patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), the auto-antibodies on bone marrow mononuclear cells (BMMBC) in the patients with SLE were determined.

Methods:Twenty one patients with SLE and ten healthy controls were enrolled in this study. BMMNC Coombs test was used to determine the aotoantibodies. The correlation between the types of auto-antibodies on BMMNC, the types of serum auto-antibodies and the counts of blood cells in the patients with SLE were also investigated.

Results:Positive results of BMMBC-Coombs test were seen in 12 patients with SLE (57.1%), among them, 10 with hemocytopenia (58.82%), and 2 without hemocytopenia (50%). The positive rate of BMMNC Coombs test was higher in the patients with SLE than that in healthy controls, and was higher in SLE patients with hemocytopenia than that in healthy controls. There were no significant difference of BMMNC-Coombs positive rate between the SLE patients without hemocytopenia and healthy controls, and there were also no significant differences between the SLE patients without hemocytopenia and SLE patients with hemocytopenia. In the 12 SLE patients with positive BMMBC-Coombs tests, IgM auto-antibody accounted for 75.0%, and C3 50.0%, IgG 8.33%, IgG+IgM 8.33%, C3+IgM 16.67%, IgG+IgM+C3 16.67%. In the SLE patients without hemocytopenia, IgG+IgM accounted for 8.33%, C3 8.33%, but IgA autoantibody were not seen in any case. There was a significant positive correlation between the auto-antibodies on BMMNC and peripheral anti-SSA, but there was no significant correlation between the results of BMMBC Coombs tests and peripheral blood cell counts.

Conclusion:There were auto-antibodies on BMMNC in the patients with SLE. The hemocytopenia in the patients with SLE maybe resulted from the destructions of bone marrow hematopoietic cells by the autoantibodies.