The in vitro production of anti-DNA antibody by cultured peripheral blood of tonsillar lymphoid cells from normal donors and SLE patients

Authors

E. Cairns, Western University
J. St. Germain, Western University
D. A. Bell, Western University

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

12-1-1985

Journal

Journal of Immunology

Volume

135

Issue

6

First Page

3839

Last Page

3844

Abstract

Anti-DNA antibody responses by cultured circulating lymphocytes from SLE patients and by the tonsillar lymphoid cells of normal donors were detected and enumerated by a sensitive specific ELISA of culture supernatants, or by a hemolytic anti-DNA PFC assay. Although spontaneous IgM and IgG anti-DNA and anti-ssDNA responses were characteristic of SLE lymphocytes and spontaneous IgM anti-ssDNA responses were characteristic of tonsillar lymphocytes, the circulating lymphocytes of normal controls never produced anti-DNA antibodies spontaneously, and rarely after PWM stimulation. The anti-DNA antibody PFC response of tonsil lymphocytes correlated directly with the total number of immunoglobulin-producing cells measured by a reverse hemolytic PFC assay. Mixing experiments in which we employed cultures of comparable numbers of separately enriched autologous circulating and tonsillar B and T cells revealed that tonsillar tissue contained an enriched population of anti-DNA antibody precursor B cells and/or helper T cells.