It has been thought that autoimmune diseases like systemic lupus erythematosus and rhumatoid athritis are closely associated with anti-DNA antibodies (Abs). In studies of the control for anti-DNA Ab generation, an understanding of the regulatory mechanisms by anti-idiotypic Abs that influence the production of anti- DNA Abs would be facillitated by the availability of the hybridomas producing the pairs of DNA-specific and anti-DNA's idiotope-specific monoclonal antibodies (mAbs). We have produced a series of anti-DNA mAbs and then monoclonal anti-idiotypic Ab directed against idiotypic determinant of the 3D8 mAb that has the highest affinity to dsDNA and ssDNA among the anti-DNA mABs that we had obtained. The spleen cells of the MRL-Ipr/Ipr, autoimmune prone, mice were fused with P3X63Ag8.653 myeioma cells to obtain anti-DNA Ab secreting hybridomas. Out of the fourteen clones that showed strong binding to ssDNA, four clones had cross-reactivity with dsDNA whereas none of these clones reacted with left-handed z-DNA. The binding activities of the anti-DNA mAbs to various synthetic polynucleotide sequences were different respectively. Anti-idiotypic mAbs were generated by the fusion of myeloma cells and spleen cells from the Balb/c mice immunized with 3DB-Fab. We have produced two anti-idiotypic mAbs, B7 (IgG2a/k) and 02F3 (IgM/k), which were specific to 3DB-Fab and cloned the variable region of the heavy chain from the 02F3 hybridoma.
Mice ; Animals