Staining and serological characteristics of the AC-30 pattern in HEp-2 IIFA: a comparative study with AC-2 pattern
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Chuiwen Deng
,
Yunyun Fei
und
Chaojun Hu
Abstract
Objectives
To investigate the staining and serological characteristics of AC-30 pattern.
Methods
A total of 184 participants were recruited from patients who underwent routine antinuclear antibody testing between 2022 and 2023 at Peking Union Medical College Hospital. Cohort 1 (n=47) showed the AC-30 pattern on HEp-2 indirect immunofluorescence assay, and cohort 2 (n=137) showed AC-2 pattern as control. Anti-DFS70 antibody detection and DFS70 antigen adsorption assays were conducted. Pattern simulation assays were performed by combining serum samples exhibiting classic AC-2 pattern with other common HEp-2 IIFA patterns.
Results
Anti-DFS70 antibodies were detected in 97 % of patients in cohort one and in all patients in cohort 2. The titers of the IIFA pattern showed a weak correlation with anti-DFS70 antibody levels in cohort 1 (r=0.35, p=0.0331). In DFS70 antigen adsorption assays, a higher proportion of homogeneous nuclear staining was observed in cohort 1 (79 %) than in cohort 2 (62 %) (p=0.037). Simulated samples mixed classic AC-2 with homogeneous pattern resembled those of AC-30 pattern in both interphase and mitotic cells. Especially, the staining characteristics of AC-2 became increasingly indistinct when mixed with higher-titer homogeneous patterns. Among samples exhibiting homogeneous patterns post-DFS70 immunoadsorption, non-autoimmune conditions were more common in cohort one than cohort two.
Conclusions
The presence of relatively lower anti-DFS70 antibodies levels or coexisting high-titer homogeneous patterns may contribute to the development of the AC-30 pattern rather than AC-2. This finding needs to be further confirmed in larger-scale studies.
Funding source: the National High-Level Hospital Clinical Research Funding
Award Identifier / Grant number: 2022-PUMCH-A-040
Funding source: the Medical Scientific Research Foundation of Zhejiang Province
Award Identifier / Grant number: 2022KY1413
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Research ethics: This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Peking Union Medical College Hospital (No. I-22PJ930) and was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.
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Informed consent: Not applicable.
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Author contributions: All authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this manuscript and approved its submission.
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Use of Large Language Models, AI and Machine Learning Tools: None declared.
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Conflict of interest: The authors state no conflict of interest.
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Research funding: This study was support by the National High-Level Hospital Clinical Research Funding (2022-PUMCH-A-040); the Medical Scientific Research Foundation of Zhejiang Province (2022KY1413).
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Data availability: The data are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Supplementary Material
This article contains supplementary material (https://doi.org/10.1515/cclm-2025-0817).
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