Antivinculin antibodies in sera of patients with immune thrombocytopenia and in sera of normal subjects

We have characterized a 120-Kd antigen that frequently reacts with serum antibodies from patients with immune thrombocytopenia or normal subjects. Immunoblots made after two-dimensional nonreduced/reduced sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) or two-dimensional isoelectric focusing/SDS-PAGE demonstrated that this 120-Kd protein has the same molecular weight under nonreduced or reduced conditions, is not a surface protein, and has an isoelectric point (pl) of 6.4 to 6.5. From these data, one likely candidate is the intracellular platelet protein, vinculin. Monoclonal antivinculin antibody reacts with this 120-Kd protein, and purified human platelet vinculin is bound by antibodies that recognize the 120-Kd protein. Therefore, we conclude that this 120-Kd protein is identical to vinculin. Data obtained from a sensitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay demonstrate the presence of naturally occurring antivinculin antibodies in many normal sera. However, the incidence of antivinculin antibodies in patient sera (67%; 55 of 82 sera) is significantly (P less than .01) higher than that in normal sera (40%; 32 of 80 sera), and there is a significant difference (P less than .05) between the mean levels of antivinculin antibodies in patient and normal sera. Whereas the levels of these antibodies in patient and normal sera overlap, 2 of 82 sera from patients with thrombocytopenia express unusually high levels of such antibodies. The pathologic significance of these antibodies remains to be determined.