Skip to main content
The Journal of Experimental Medicine logoLink to The Journal of Experimental Medicine
. 1989 Oct 1;170(4):1433–1438. doi: 10.1084/jem.170.4.1433

Serum amyloid P component binds to cell nuclei in vitro and to in vivo deposits of extracellular chromatin in systemic lupus erythematosus

PMCID: PMC2189460  PMID: 2794863

Abstract

Serum amyloid P component (SAP) is the single plasma protein that, from the milieu of whole normal human serum, undergoes specific calcium- dependent binding to isolated DNA and chromatin in vitro. We now report for the first time that SAP in whole serum also undergoes calcium- dependent binding to nuclei of epidermal cells in sections of normal human skin and to nuclei of fixed Hep-2 cells, a human epithelial cell line. Furthermore, and most importantly, SAP was detected in association with unusual globular dermal deposits of nuclear material in skin biopsies from two patients with systemic lupus erythematosus. This is the first evidence for binding of SAP to extracellular chromatin in vivo and supports the idea that SAP may have an important physiological role in the disposal of this material.

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (457.9 KB).

Selected References

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

  1. Breathnach S. M., Melrose S. M., Bhogal B., de Beer F. C., Dyck R. F., Tennent G., Black M. M., Pepys M. B. Amyloid P component is located on elastic fibre microfibrils in normal human tissue. Nature. 1981 Oct 22;293(5834):652–654. doi: 10.1038/293652a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Breathnach S. M., Pepys M. B., Hintner H. Tissue amyloid P component in normal human dermis is non-covalently associated with elastic fiber microfibrils. J Invest Dermatol. 1989 Jan;92(1):53–58. doi: 10.1111/1523-1747.ep13071087. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Dyck R. F., Lockwood C. M., Kershaw M., McHugh N., Duance V. C., Baltz M. L., Pepys M. B. Amyloid P-component is a constituent of normal human glomerular basement membrane. J Exp Med. 1980 Nov 1;152(5):1162–1174. doi: 10.1084/jem.152.5.1162. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Gilliam J. N. The significance of cutaneous immunoglobulin deposits in lupus erythematosus and NZB/NZW F1 hybrid mice. J Invest Dermatol. 1975 Jul;65(1):154–161. doi: 10.1111/1523-1747.ep12598109. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Hamazaki H. Ca2+-mediated association of human serum amyloid P component with heparan sulfate and dermatan sulfate. J Biol Chem. 1987 Feb 5;262(4):1456–1460. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Hawkins P. N., Myers M. J., Lavender J. P., Pepys M. B. Diagnostic radionuclide imaging of amyloid: biological targeting by circulating human serum amyloid P component. Lancet. 1988 Jun 25;1(8600):1413–1418. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(88)92235-0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Hind C. R., Collins P. M., Renn D., Cook R. B., Caspi D., Baltz M. L., Pepys M. B. Binding specificity of serum amyloid P component for the pyruvate acetal of galactose. J Exp Med. 1984 Apr 1;159(4):1058–1069. doi: 10.1084/jem.159.4.1058. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Natali P. G., Tan E. M. Experimental skin lesions in mice resembling systemic lupus erythematosus. Arthritis Rheum. 1973 Sep-Oct;16(5):579–589. doi: 10.1002/art.1780160502. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Pepys M. B., Baltz M. L. Acute phase proteins with special reference to C-reactive protein and related proteins (pentaxins) and serum amyloid A protein. Adv Immunol. 1983;34:141–212. doi: 10.1016/s0065-2776(08)60379-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Pepys M. B., Baltz M. L., de Beer F. C., Dyck R. F., Holford S., Breathnach S. M., Black M. M., Tribe C. R., Evans D. J., Feinstein A. Biology of serum amyloid P component. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 1982;389:286–298. doi: 10.1111/j.1749-6632.1982.tb22144.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Pepys M. B., Butler P. J. Serum amyloid P component is the major calcium-dependent specific DNA binding protein of the serum. Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 1987 Oct 14;148(1):308–313. doi: 10.1016/0006-291x(87)91111-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Pepys M. B., Dyck R. F., de Beer F. C., Skinner M., Cohen A. S. Binding of serum amyloid P-component (SAP) by amyloid fibrils. Clin Exp Immunol. 1979 Nov;38(2):284–293. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Robey F. A., Jones K. D., Tanaka T., Liu T. Y. Binding of C-reactive protein to chromatin and nucleosome core particles. A possible physiological role of C-reactive protein. J Biol Chem. 1984 Jun 10;259(11):7311–7316. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. de Beer F. C., Baltz M. L., Holford S., Feinstein A., Pepys M. B. Fibronectin and C4-binding protein are selectively bound by aggregated amyloid P component. J Exp Med. 1981 Oct 1;154(4):1134–1139. doi: 10.1084/jem.154.4.1134. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from The Journal of Experimental Medicine are provided here courtesy of The Rockefeller University Press

RESOURCES