Idiotype-anti-idiotype circuit in non-autoimmune mice after immunization with the epitope and complementary epitope 289-308aa of La/SSB: implications for the maintenance and perpetuation of the anti-La/SSB response.

Background: Antibodies to La/SSB are usually found in sera of patients with Sjogren's Syndrome (SS) and Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE). Recent work from our laboratory (Mol Med 2002;8:293-305) revealed that an active idiotypic network involving antibodies to epitopes of La/SSB and their anti-idiotypes exist in human sera. The anti-idiotypic antibodies were detected using complementary peptides to B-cell epitopes of the autoantigen.