To the editor in reply to Dr. Crow's letter.
We are delighted that our discovery of autoantibodies directed against LINE-1 retroelement-encoded p40/ORF1p in SLE patients (1) has been so rapidly replicated and we thank Dr. Crow for her excellent summary of our findings. Her group's detection of LINE-1 mRNA and immunoreactive p40 protein in salivary gland biopsies from primary Sjögren's syndrome patients and in kidney biopsies from SLE patients (2) was an important impetus for our study. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.