Anti β2-glycoprotein I antibodies: Clinical significance

Abstract

The introduction of anticardiolipin antibody (aCL) assay, described in 1983, was able to focus much attention on the study of patients suffering from thrombosis, repeated fetal loss and thrombocytopenia, and allowing the identification of the so called antiphospholipid syndrome (APS). The identification of β2 glycoprotein I (β22GPI) as an essential component of the antigenic complex recognized by aCL suggested that this molecule could be a direct target of the antibody response. Since then, different groups have described ELISAs for the detection of anti β2GPI antibodies, applied to the clinical evaluation of patients with APS, and showing an overall better specificity. Recently, anti β2GPI were also shown to bind apoptotic bodies resulting in an alteration of their physiological clearance with the triggering of TNFα release. This observation suggests that anti β2GPI may also modify the immunogenicity of apoptotic bodies and of the autoantigens that they contain.