Lack of detection of agonist activity by antibodies to platelet‐derived growth factor receptor α in a subset of normal and systemic sclerosis patient sera

Abstract

Although approximately one-third of sera from scleroderma patients contained detectable autoantibodies to PDGFR, these antibodies were not specific to scleroderma, since they were also detected in a similar percentage of samples from normal subjects. PDGFRalpha agonist activity was not demonstrated when purified Ig from these sera was tested in cell-based assays.