Pattern of antinuclear autoantibodies in diseases with systemic connective tissue lesions

Several types of antinuclear antibodies (ANA) were discovered by the fluorescent antibody method in diseases accompanied by systemic lesions of connective tissue and also in certain other diseases and in clinically healthy blood donors, depending on the character of fluorescence in the nuclei. Diffuse fluorescence of nuclei, diffuse fluorescence without fluorescence of the nucleoli, annular fluorescence, fluorescence in the form of granules, selective fluorescence of nucleoli, and fluorescnece in the form of long, thin, interweaving bands with simultaneous fluorescence in the region of the nuclear membrane were distinguished. The last type of ANA was observed only in various forms of lupus erythematosus, and the character of fluorescence in the nuclei differed from the “reticular” and “filamentous” types of fluorescence described previously.