Humoral autoimmunity to basement membrane antigens is regulated in C57BL/6 and MRL/MpJ mice transgenic for anti-laminin Ig receptors.

Basement membrane proteins are targeted in organ-limited and systemic autoimmune nephritis, yet little is known about the origin or regulation of immunity to these complex extracellular matrices. We used mice transgenic for a nephrotropic systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) Ig H chain to test the hypothesis that humoral immunity to basement membrane is actively regulated. The LamH-Cmu Ig H chain transgene combines with diverse L chains to produce nephrotropic Ig reactive with murine laminin alpha1.