Genetic basis of autoimmune sialadenitis in MRL/lpr lupus-prone mice: additive and hierarchical properties of polygenic inheritance.
OBJECTIVE
To clarify the mode of inheritance of autoimmune sialadenitis in MRL/MpJ-lpr/lpr (MRL/lpr) lupus-prone mice and identify the susceptibility loci.


METHODS
MRL/lpr, C3H/HeJ-lpr/lpr (C3H/lpr), (MRL/lpr x C3H/lpr)F1 intercross, and MRL/lpr x (MRL/lpr x C3H/lpr)F1 backcross mice were prepared, and sialadenitis in individual mice was analyzed by histopathologic grading. The genomic DNA of the backcross mice was examined by simple sequence-length polymorphism analysis, and the highly associated polymorphic microsatellite markers with sialadenitis were determined as sialadenitis susceptibility loci.


RESULTS
Four susceptible gene loci recessively associated with sialadenitis were mapped on chromosomes 10, 18, 4, and 1, respectively. These loci manifested additive and hierarchical properties in the development of sialadenitis.


CONCLUSIONS
The results indicate that sialadenitis in MRL/lpr mice is under the control of polygenic inheritance, possibly involving allelic polymorphism.
Nishihara
M
M
Ehime University School of Medicine, Japan.
Terada
M
M
Kamogawa
J
J
Ohashi
Y
Y
Mori
S
S
Nakatsuru
S
S
Nakamura
Y
Y
Nose
M
M
D000818:Animals; D001327:Autoimmune Diseases / Q000235:genetics*; D006720:Homozygote; D015994:Incidence; D051379:Mice; D008809:Mice, Inbred C3H; D019463:Mice, Inbred MRL lpr / Q000235:genetics*; D012793:Sialadenitis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology*