Autoreactive B cells involved in autoantibody response to mouse lysozyme.

2003 FEB 5 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- According to recent research from Japan, "We previously found that autoantibodies against mouse lysozyme (ML) were strongly induced in normal BALB/c mice when immunized with mutant ML that has triple mutations rendering the dominant T-cell epitope of hen egg lysozyme (HEL), HEL 107-116. As T cells specific for HEL 107-116 were primed in these mice, the anti-ML immunoglobulin G (IgG) responses would be the result of collaborations between autoreactive B cells specific for ML and T cells specific for HEL 107-116. Serum IgG responses against ML were dominantly focused on the ML 14 69 region, indicating that B cells responding to the epitope escape tolerance."

"In the present study, we prepared several monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) specific for ML 14 69 and examined their antigen specificities in detail, to characterize the nature of the remaining B-cell repertoire specific for ML," said Yoshiyuki Tsujihata and collaborators at Kyushu University in Fukuoka. "Monoclonal Abs specific for ML 14-69 interacted weakly with soluble, native ML, but the interactions were strengthened by denaturation of ML. The apparent affinity constants between these mAbs and ML showed an increase, ranging from six- to 80-fold, by denaturation of ML. Therefore, these mAbs were more specific for the denatured ...