Pathological Significance of Anti-DNA Antibodies: analysis using monoclonal antibodies

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) are charcterized by spontaneous production of antibodies reacting with DNA, which are one of the causative factors for developing nephritis and vasculitis seen in this disease. Because of difficulties in purifying monospecific anti-DNA antibodies from SLE sera, the prcise specificity of the anti-DNA antibodies has not yet been clearly defined. This problem recently can been settled in part by the advance in cell hybridization technique which makes feasible establish ment of hybrid cell lines producing monospecific antibodies.Using this technique, we established several clones of hybridoma antibodies to DNA from SLE-prone mouse, B/W F1 and MRL/lpr and obtained evidence that out monoclonal anti-DNA antibodies showed a considerable extent of heterogeneity in terms of their specificities. A striking finding was that the anti-DNA monoclonal antibodies have the frequently observed property of polyreactivity, i.e., the ability to bind to other antigens. These include reactivity to 1) nucleic acid other than DNA, 2) phospholipd, especially cardiolipn, 3) Ciq and 4) murine T and B cell lines and mitogen activated spleen cells.