title: The significance of idiotype-anti-idiotype interactions in the activation of self-reactive clones.
abstract: Autoantibodies against a wide range of self antigens have been found in the serum of normal mice and healthy humans. It is now accepted that the production of self reactive clones is not an aberration and that the immune system does not purge itself of the previously called "horror" clones. Recently it has been shown that the majority of autoantibodies are polyspecific and able to react with both self and foreign antigens. Following these observations, it was speculated that the activation of self reactive clones may result from common shared epitopes between self and foreign (bacterial, viral and parasitic) antigens. In this report, we show on the one hand that autoantibodies specific for Sm antigen express an idiotype originally found on antibodies specific for bacterial levan. On the other hand, using an anti-idiotypic antibody bearing the internal image of the glutamic-tyrosine polymer, we succeed in inducing polyspecific antibodies reacting with GT and self antigens in both normal and autoimmune disease prone mice. These findings may reflect one side of the mechanism(s) behind the activation of self reactive clones. The significance of idiotype-anti-idiotype interactions in the activation of self reactive clones which may be responsible for autoimmune diseases is discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, City University of New York, New York 10029.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zaghouani
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Fidanza
authors.forename: C A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Bona
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000918:Antibody Specificity; D000937:Antigen-Antibody Reactions; D001323:Autoantibodies; D001327:Autoimmune Diseases / Q000209:etiology; D006801:Humans; D007130:Immunoglobulin Idiotypes; D008213:Lymphocyte Activation; D051379:Mice
chemical_list: D001323:Autoantibodies; D007130:Immunoglobulin Idiotypes