Immunoglobulin E and systemic lupus erythematosus

systemic lupus erythematosus (sle) is an autoimmune disease characterized by intense polyclonal production of autoantibodies and circulating immune complexes. some reports have associated sle with a th2 immune response and allergy. in the present study 21 female patients with sle were investigated for total ige and ige antibodies to dust house aeroallergens by an automated enzyme-linked fluorescent assay, and were also evaluated for antinuclear ige autoantibodies by a modified indirect immunofluorescence test using hep-2 cells as antigen substrate. additionally, immunocapture elisa was used to investigate serum anti-ige igg autoantibodies. serum ige above 150 iu/ml, ranging from 152 to 609 iu/ml (median = 394 iu ige/ml), was observed in 7 of 21 sle patients (33%), 5 of them presenting proteinuria, urinary cellular casts and augmented production of anti-dsdna antibodies. while only 2 of 21 sle patients (9.5%) were positive for ige antibodies to aeroallergens, all 10 patients with respiratory allergy (100%) from the atopic control group (3 males and 7 females), had these immunoglobulins. sle patients and healthy controls presented similar anti-ige igg autoantibody titers (x = 0.37 ± 0.20 and 0.34 ± 0.18, respectively), differing from atopic controls (0.94 ± 0.26). antinuclear ige autoantibodies were detected in 17 of 21 (81%) sera from sle patients, predominating the fine speckled pattern of fluorescence, that was also observed in igg-ana. concluding, sle patients can present increased ige levels and antinuclear ige autoantibodies without specific clinical signs of allergy or production of antiallergen ige antibodies, excluding a possible association between sle and allergy.