Department of Pathology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX 75390-9072, USA.
Autoimmunity. 2011 Dec;44(8):641-51. doi: 10.3109/08916934.2011.587852. Epub 2011 Jun 20.
The systemic lupus erythematosus (Sle1) interval from the NZM2410 mouse strain has been shown to be responsible for high levels of autoantibody production against antinuclear antibodies (ANA) when transferred into C57BL/6 mice. B cells derived from the B6.Sle1 strain are required for the production but help from both T-dependent and independent sources have been documented. Using radiation chimeras constructed in a strain of mice that is chronically depleted of Natural killer (NK) cells, but not NKT cells, we have examined the role of NK cells in the development of ANA in this context. Our results show that in the presence of intact T cell help depletion of NK cells does not affect ANA production. However, when T cell help is compromised, the prevalence of animals producing ANA is significantly decreased suggesting that NK cells can provide help for the T-independent production of ANA. Further experiments provide a possible mechanism for the NK-cell dependence.
从 NZM2410 小鼠品系中分离出的系统性红斑狼疮（Sle1）间隔时间，当转移到 C57BL/6 小鼠中时，已被证明会导致针对核抗体（ANA）的自身抗体产生水平升高。B6.Sle1 品系来源的 B 细胞是产生自身抗体所必需的，但已经证明 T 细胞依赖性和非依赖性来源都有帮助。使用在一种慢性耗尽自然杀伤（NK）细胞但不耗尽 NKT 细胞的小鼠品系中构建的辐射嵌合体，我们检查了 NK 细胞在这种情况下 ANA 产生中的作用。我们的结果表明，在完整的 T 细胞辅助存在下，NK 细胞耗竭不会影响 ANA 的产生。然而，当 T 细胞辅助受损时，产生 ANA 的动物的流行率显著降低，这表明 NK 细胞可以为 T 细胞非依赖性产生 ANA 提供帮助。进一步的实验提供了 NK 细胞依赖性的可能机制。
