| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
|
|
|
|||||||
|
|||||||||
Laboratory of Microbial Immunity, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the Arthritis and Rheumatism Branch, National Institute of Arthritis, Metabolism, and Digestive Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20014; the Robert B. Brigham Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts 02120 and the Department of Microbiology, Montana State University, Bozeman, Montana 59715
Abstract
Sera from 1- to 4-month-old congenitally athymic "nude" mice and their phenotypically normal littermates (LM) were tested for their capacity to bind double-stranded DNA and RNA. Sera from nudes bound significantly more DNA than did LM sera with no differences in RNA-binding capacity being demonstrable. Decline in the clinical state of nude mice was associated with increased serum DNA-binding capacity. Nude mice grafted with thymi at 1 month of age had reduced serum DNA-binding capacities when compared to non-grafted nudes. Immunofluorescent staining of kidneys from nude mice revealed the presence of significant amounts of IgM, IgG1, IgG2, and IgA immunoglobulins in the glomeruli of nudes but not LM mice. In some cases, immunoglobulin was associated with complement (
1c) deposition. The relevance of these findings to theories of autoimmunity is discussed.
Footnotes
1 This work was supported in part by Research Grants AI 10384-03, AM-11414 and Career Development Award (N.D.R.) AI 70208-02 from the National Institutes of Health.
2 Present address: the Arthritis and Rheumatism Branch, National Institute of Arthritis, Metabolism, and Digestive Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20014.
3 Present address: the Robert B. Brigham Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts 02120.
4 Present address: the Department of Microbiology, Montana State University, Bozeman, Montana 59715.
| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
