Over the last 40 years serum antibody testing has been considered one of the most important advances in the study of rheumatic disease.1 The description of the rheumatoid factor and LE cell phenomena in the late 1940s led to great excitement because of their importance in diagnosing specific diseases and because of the understanding of the biology of the disorders that they provided.2,3 Next on the horizon was the antinuclear factor.4,5 In this test immunofluorescent staining of substrates (animal liver and kidney cells, peripheral white blood cells, and tumor cell lines) allowed specific interpretations of patterns of staining and titers. For instance, it was recognized that a peripheral pattern of nuclear stain in resting cells correlated with antibody to native double-stranded DNA and was seen most commonly with lupus nephritis.6
See also p 2461.
Later, certain antigens were found to be saline extractable from the nucleus