B cell hyperactivity in autoimmune continuous B cell lines.

Generalized increase in immunoglobulin secretion, which is a prominent feature of autoimmune diseases, may be due to abnormal T cell regulation, intrinsic abnormality of B cells, or both. To investigate this question we developed nonmalignant continuous B lymphocyte lines from 20-week-old BWF1 mice and compared their growth and immune response to that of BALB/c mice cell lines. The B cell lines contain less than 1% T cells and macrophages and require growth factors from phytohemagglutinin-stimulated EL-4 lymphoma (GF) or recombinant interleukin 4 for continuous growth.

Immunologic tolerance to DNA in B cell lines from both normal and autoimmune mice.

We examine whether B cell lines enriched for DNA specificity from either autoimmune (BWF1) or normal mice (Balb/c) can be rendered unresponsive to autoantigen in terms of the specific suppression of direct antibody-forming cells to DNA. These B cell lines were both Lyt-1 positive and negative. Preincubation with oligonucleotide, covalently linked to mouse gamma-globulin, specifically suppressed the antigen-driven response elicited by DNA horse red blood cells in B cell lines from both strains of mice.