Spontaneous antinuclear autoimmunisation in Swan and nude mice: comparative study.

Spontaneous antinuclear autoimmunisation in both Swan and Nude mice seems due to a disparition of the T cell immunosuppressive function. Swan mice show a progressive diminution of thymic function, and thus T cell activity, with age; wherease Nude mice are congenitally lacking in a thymus and thus in T cells. Both strains of mice develop deposits of immunoglobulin in the glomerular membrane and the Swan mice have such deposits at the dermoepidermal junction. The antinuclear autoimmunity of the two strains of mice differs in that the number of Swan mice with detectable titres increases with age until, at 40 weeks, all the mice are positive, whereas the number of Nude mice positive at a young age rarely increase until the time of death. The antibodies produced by the Swan mice may be of any of the major immunoglobulin classes, whereas those produced by Nude mice are nearly always IgM.