A. Dietrich et al., PRIMED LYMPHOCYTES ARE BOOSTED BY TYPE-II COLLAGEN OF THEIR HOSTS AFTER ADOPTIVE TRANSFER, Journal of autoimmunity, 7(5), 1994, pp. 601-609
A central question in understanding autoimmunity is whether an endogen
ous self-antigen can drive an immune response initially triggered by a
foreign one. This possibility is here tested by adoptive transfer, in
which T and B cells from mice primed with foreign type II collagen we
re transferred into irradiated syngeneic hosts. Previous work with oth
er protein antigens has established that primed cells normally respond
only if boosted after transfer with antigen. In the present case, and
in respect only to that portion of the antibody response able to bind
to endogenous type II collagen, that requirement did not hold. This i
ndicates that the anti-self component is indeed driven by endogenous a
ntigen, which the transferred lymphocytes presumably obtain from their
adoptive hosts. The transfers were carried out in C57BL10.A x DBA/1 m
ice using donors primed with either chick or bovine collagen, and the
non-boosted responses, presumably driven by endogenous antigen, could
be followed in a proportion of the recipients for as long as 45 days,