Immunoglobulin deposits in the dermal-epiderma1 junction of clinically normal skin from patients with SLE were eluted by acid buffer. The eluates contained antinuclear and antibasement membrane antibody activities. The anti-BM antibody reacted with skin and esophageal but not glomerular basement membrane. Enzymatic studies indicated that the antibody reacted with carbohydrate moeities in the basement membrane. The anti-BM antibody was not present in corresponding sera of SLE patients.Cutaneous lesions are one of the most common clinical manifestations of SLE. Studies by light microscopy have revealed inflammation, necrosis, fibrin deposition, and eosinophilic bodies (1,2). Immunofluorescent studies have established the presence of immunoglobulin deposits in the dermal-epidermal junction, blood vessel walls, and dermal structures (3-5). Electron-dense deposits have also been identified by electron microscopy at the basement membrane zone, in walls of blood vessels, or among collagen fibers in locations similar to immunofluorescent findings (6). The present studies were undertaken to elaborate further on the nature of immunoglobulin deposits, employing elution and fluorescent antibody techniques.

Nitric oxide (NO) is synthesised in the vascular endothelium by nitric oxide synthase (NOS3) and is an important factor in the regulation of blood pressure. Impaired synthesis of NO due to mutations in the NOS3 gene is associated with hypertension. To date several allelic variants of the NOS3 gene have been identified and their possible linkage with hypertension investigated. We studied the distribution of genotypes and frequency of alleles of the G11T polymorphism in intron 23 of the NOS3 gene in patients with hypertension and in a control group of healthy individuals. The polymorphism was determined by PCR-RFLP analysis. The distribution of genotypes in the patients with hypertension and in the healthy individuals did not differ significantly from the values predicted from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium for the general population. No major differences in the distribution of the G11T polymorphism in the patients and healthy individuals were found (P > 0.05). Abbreviations: dNTP, deoxyribonucleotides; MSSCP, multitemperature single-stranded conformational polymorphism; RFLP, restriction fragments length polymorphism; VNTR, variation in the number of tandem repeats.

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