Destructive spondylarthropathy and chronic renal failure
Reference reagents for antinuclear antibodies
To the Editor:
Autoantibodies to nuclear and other intracellular antigens, often called antinuclear antibodies (ANA), have been useful as diagnostic aids in clinical medicine and as immunologic probes in molecular and cell biology. Recently, two international organizations, the International League Against Rheumatism and the International Union of Immunological Societies, agreed to the formation of the International Committee on Antinuclear Antibodies, at a meeting at the World Health Organization in Geneva. The charge of this international committee was to standardize reference sera containing ANA of different immunologic specificities and, in collaboration with the Arthritis Foundation (AF) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta, GA, make these reference reagents available to bona fide clinical laboratories and research investigators throughout the world. This communication is a preliminary announcement concerning the availability of certain reference ANA (see Table ).
Researchers interested in obtaining these reagents should write to AF/CDC ANA Reference Laboratory, Immunology Branch, 1-1202 A25, Centers for Disease Control,