Organization of Autoantibody Vh Genes

Barrett, Kathleen J.

Abstract

The goal of this project is to further understand the autoimmune disease, systemic lupus erythematosis. Cloned V genes from autoantibodies will be used to investigate the origin and nature of autoantibodies and the mechanism of autoantibody production as compared to """"""""normal"""""""" antibodies. The hypothesis that autoantibodies are encoded by a biased part of the normal repertoire will be tested as will the role of somatic mutation and idiotype networks. The information gained from these experiments may provide useful diagnostic and therapeutic reagents for lupus.

Funding Agency

• Agency: National Institute of Health (NIH)
• Institute: National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS)
• Type: Research Project (R01)
• Project #: 5R01AR038821-04
• Application #: 3158814
• Study Section: Allergy and Immunology Study Section (ALY)
• Project Start: 1986-09-01
• Project End: 1992-08-31
• Budget Start: 1989-09-01
• Budget End: 1990-08-31
• Support Year: 4
• Fiscal Year: 1989

Institution

• Name: Tufts University
• City: Boston
• State: MA
• Country: United States
• Zip Code: 02111

Publications

Gangemi, R M; Singh, A K; Barrett, K J (1993) Independently derived IgG anti-DNA autoantibodies from two lupus-prone mouse strains express a VH gene that is not present in most murine strains. J Immunol 151:4660-71

Foster, M H; MacDonald, M; Barrett, K J et al. (1991) VH gene analysis of spontaneously activated B cells in adult MRL-lpr/lpr mice. J558 bias is not limited to classic lupus autoantibodies. J Immunol 147:1504-11

Guillaume, T; Rubinstein, D B; Young, F et al. (1990) Individual VH genes detected with oligonucleotide probes from the complementarity-determining regions. J Immunol 145:1934-45

Souroujon, M C; Rubinstein, D B; Schwartz, R S et al. (1989) Polymorphisms in human H chain V region genes from the VHIII gene family. J Immunol 143:706-11

Barrett, K J (1989) Anti-DNA antibodies, autoimmunity and the immunoglobulin repertoire. Int Rev Immunol 5:43-78

Trepicchio Jr, W; Maruya, A; Barrett, K J (1987) The heavy chain genes of a lupus anti-DNA autoantibody are encoded in the germ line of a nonautoimmune strain of mouse and conserved in strains of mice polymorphic for this gene locus. J Immunol 139:3139-45