On employing leishmania promastigotes for systemic lupus erythematosus diagnosis

Based on having definite double stranded DNA determinants in the kinetoplast, it was attempted to use Leishmania promastigotes as an IFAT substrate for the detection of serum anti ds-DNA autoantibodies which are the prominent diagnostic marker of SLE. Serological inspection of different Leishmania preparations revealed that Leishmania is not analogous to Crithidia lucilia as an appropriate ds-DNA substrate. It seems likely that the species-specific molecular characters of the kinetoplast-DNA are influencing the reaction. The issue is an evidence of the distinct differentiation of the K-DNA antigenic determinants in haemoflagellates