Production of Anti-DNA Antibodies in Normal Mice after Immunization with Anti-Idiotypic Antibodies

• Published in: Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1988-06, Vol.529 (1), p.228-229
• Main Authors: PHILLIPS, T. M., FRANTZ, S. C., HOLOHAN, T. V.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0077-8923; 1749-6632
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1749-6632.1988.tb51466.x

It has been hypothesized that idiotypic antibodies elicit the production of autoantibodies, even in the absence of detectable levels of antigen. To investigate this hypothesis, the authors immunized normal Balb/C mice with defined fragments of murine DNA and isolated the idiotypic antibody responses to these fragments by affinity chromatography. These Id antibodies were complexed with naturally occurring rheumatoid factor (RF) and used to induce the formation of anti-Id antibodies. The anti-Id antibodies were isolated by high-performance immunoaffinity chromatography, using the original Id as the immobilized ligand. These anti-Ids were again complexed with RF and injected into normal 6-month-old Balb/C male mice. The animals were monitored weekly for the presence of anti-DNA antibodies by the Jerne plaque assay and by indirect immunofluorescence using Hep-2 cells as the substrate. The presence of antibody-secreting cells was detected at Day 42.