Affiliations: [a] Research Unit of Autoimmune Diseases and Department of Medicine ‘B’ | [b] Institute of Pathology, Sheba Medical Center (affiliated to Tel-Aviv University, Sackler Faculty of Medicine), Tel-Hashomer, Israel | [c] Specialty Laboratories, Santa Monica, CA, USA
Correspondence:
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Correspondence and reprint requests to: Yehuda Shoenfeld, MD, Head, Department of Medicine of ‘B’ Sheba Medical Center, Tel-Hashomer 52621, Israel.
Abstract: The characteristic pathogenic autoantibodies in Goodpasture's syndrome (GPS) are directed to the noncollagenous domain (NC1) of basement membrane type IV collagen. To examine whether immunization with anti-NC1 antibodies could lead to GPS-like pathology, naive BALB/c mice were immunized intradermally with a mouse IgG anti-NC1 monoclonal antibody or IgG serum fraction derived from patients with GPS. Mice immunized with normal mouse or human IgG and nonimmunized mice served as controls. Anti-NC1 antibodies of IgG isotype were detected in the sera of mice injected with anti-NC1 antibodies, but not in the sera of control mice. The presence of circulating anti-NC1 antibodies coincided in some of the mice with erythrocyturia or proteinuria and pathological changes in the kidneys. No pathologic alterations were seen in the control mice. The results show that specific idiotypic manipulation can induce anti-NC1 antibodies and pathological changes resembling human GPS.
