MECHANISMS OF SYSTEMIC AUTOIMMUNITY IN MURINE MODELS OF SLE

Our laboratory has utilized spontaneous and experimentally induced mod els of systemic autoimmunity in mice in order to elucidate the cellula r deficiencies in immunoregulation that are essential to this process. In the spontaneously autoimmune mouse strains, genetic defects in T a nd B cell tolerance are the primary abnormalities that drive the syndr ome. The induced chronic graft-vs-host model depends on abnormal T-B i nteractions resulting from allogeneic recognition of major histocompat ibility complex (MHC) class II. Future investigations will target the biochemistry of the loss of tolerance and the specificity of autoreact ive T cells that provide help for autoantibody production.