antineutrophil cytoplasmic autoantibodies (anca) were detected in patients with autoimmune and vascular diseases such as wegener's granulomatosis, polyarteritis nodosa and systemic lupus erythematosus. indirect immunofluorescence (iif) technique was employed to detect these autoantibodies. by this method, two general patterns of anca were seen: a cytoplasmic (canca) and a perinuclear form ...

proteinase 3(pr3) is a human polymorphonuclear leukocyte serine proteinase and is the main target antigen for antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies (anca) found in wegener's granulomatosis (wg). we developed a stable expression system for conformationally intact recombinant pr3 (rpr3) in chinese hamster ovary cells (cho-cells). the part of pr3 cdna that encoded the active form of pr3 was s...