Figure 1

Quantitative analysis of immunoblots. Representative image of the miniblots used for quantitative immunoblotting analysis of autoreactive antibodies in patients and controls. Total protein extracts from whole organs (mammary artery in the example) were separated by electrophoresis and transferred onto a nitrocellulose membrane. Membranes were incubated with the serum of different individuals (patients, left; controls, right) with the standard (200g/ml of pooled human IgG) and PBS (negative control). Fixed immunoglobulins (IgG in the example) were then revealed using the appropriate secondary antibody coupled to alkaline-phosphatase. Densitometric profiles of antibody reactivities in the two groups were acquired with a high-resolution CCD scanner. Densitometric profiles were determined by computer-assisted analysis, which allowed the rescaling and quantitative comparison of patterns of reactivity in the two groups (patients vs controls, bottom panel).