To characterize the clinical features of patients with autoantibodies against dymple, a dynamin-related protein.
Serum samples from 281 patients with rheumatic diseases were examined. The characteristics of antidymple and antibody-reactive determinants were investigated by immunoblotting with the recombinant dymple antigen, including its deletion mutants, and by immunofluorescence studies with affinity-purified serum.
Five serum samples (2%) were found to have antidymple. All of these patients were male, and 4 of them had interstitial pneumonitis. Their sera were considered to mainly recognize the N-terminus of dymple, which contains GTP-binding motifs.
Dymple, which joins the cytoplasmic autoantigens, could be a marker for a newly recognized subset of connective tissue diseases.