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.