Sekiguchi DR, Eisenberg RA, Weigert M. Secondary heavy chain rearrangement: a mechanism for generating anti-double-stranded DNA B cells.
J Exp Med 2003;
197:27-39. [PMID:
12515811 PMCID:
PMC2193805 DOI:
10.1084/jem.20020737]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 50] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/07/2002] [Revised: 10/15/2002] [Accepted: 10/23/2002] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
The chronic graft-versus-host (cGVH) reaction results in a syndrome that closely resembles systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). It is induced in nonautoimmune mice by the transfer of alloreactive T cells. The availability of anti-DNA transgenes allows us to study the genetic origins of autoantibodies in this model. We induced cGVH in two anti-DNA H chain site-directed transgenic mouse strains. This resulted in clonal expansion and selection of specific mutations in the anti-double-stranded (ds) DNA B cell population. These data, together with a high frequency of anti-dsDNA B cell clones recovered as hybridomas, suggested that anti-dsDNAs are the product of an antigen-driven immune response. Genetic analysis associated this response with the generation of anti-dsDNA B cells through secondary rearrangements that replaced the site-directed transgene (sd-tg) with endogenous VH genes.
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