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. 2004 Jul;63(7):862–866. doi: 10.1136/ard.2003.011056

Autoantibodies against granulocyte–macrophage colony stimulating factor and interleukin-3 are rare in patients with Felty's syndrome

B Hellmich 1, A Ciaglo 1, H Schatz 1, G Coakley 1
PMCID: PMC1755075  PMID: 15194585

Abstract

Objectives: Antibodies against granulocyte colony stimulating factor are frequently found in patients with Felty's syndrome (FS). In this study, we examined the prevalence of antibodies against two other granulopoietic cytokines: granulocyte–macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) and interleukin-3 (IL3).

Methods: Sera of 32 patients with FS, 20 normocytic patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and 72 healthy individuals were screened for the presence of antibodies against GM-CSF and IL3 by ELISA and bioassays, using the human erythroleukaemia cell line TF-1.

Results: In two of the 32 patients with FS, antibodies to GM-CSF and IL3 were detectable by ELISA. Binding anti-GM-CSF antibodies were also detected in one of the 72 healthy controls, while in another healthy subject and in one of the patients with normocytic RA, anti-IL3 antibodies were present. Serum from one of the two patients with FS who tested positive for anti-IL3 and anti-GM-CSF antibodies by ELISA showed strong neutralising capacity to the biological effect of IL3, but not to GM-CSF in vitro. Patients with FS had significantly higher serum levels of GM-CSF (median; 2.82 pg/mL; interquartile range 2.64–3.19 pg/mL) compared with patients with RA (2.52 pg/mL; 2.28–2.72 pg/mL; p = 0.012) and healthy controls (2.23 pg/mL; 2.04–2.52; p<0.001). In addition, serum levels of IL3 in patients were significantly higher in FS (10.05 pg/mL; 8.94–11.98) compared with controls (4.79 pg/mL; 3.72–7.22; p<0.001), but not compared with RA patients (9.52 pg/mL; 8.32–10.42; p = 0.17).

Conclusions: Antibodies to GM-CSF and IL3 are rare in patients with FS and RA and in healthy subjects. In individual patients with FS, the presence of neutralising anti-IL3 antibodies may contribute to the development of cytopenia.

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Figure 1.

Figure 1

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 (A) Proliferation of TF-1 erythroleukaemia cells correlates with increasing concentrations of IL3 in the culture medium. The rate of proliferation is expressed by the absorbance measured by a colorimetric BrdU cell proliferation ELISA. (B) Proliferation of TF-1 cells after incubation with IL3 (1000 ng/mL) and sera from patients tested positive or negative for anti-IL3 antibodies by ELISA. The bold horizontal bar represents the median proliferation of cells in the presence of anti-IL3 antibody negative sera from healthy controls, lighter horizontal bars show the 25th and 75th percentiles. Data points are means of three experiments per serum. Serum from one patient with Felty's syndrome (No 26) tested positive for anti-IL3 antibodies by ELISA showed significant (more than 50%) inhibition of proliferation compared with anti-IL3 antibody negative controls.

Figure 2.

Figure 2

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 Serum levels of granulocyte–macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) and interleukin-3 (IL3). Data are presented as box plots with median lines, 25th and 75th percentile boxes, and 90th percentile error bars.

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These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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