Autoimmunity in chronic graft-versus-host disease.

F mice with chronic GVH disease were studied to investigate the hypothesis that non-specific stimulation of helper T cells, such as might be seen in graft-versus-host (GVH) disease, results in autoantibody production. Antinuclear antibody (ANA) was detected significantly more frequently in F mice with GVH disease than in control animals. The antigenic specificities of the ANA indicate that it is of host origin and, since it reacts with syngeneic nuclei, it can be considered a true autoantibody. The pattern of development, intensity, prevalence and sex distribution of ANA reactions differed notably in experiments with A × CBA Fs compared to those with C57B1/6 × BALB/c Fs suggesting that these parameters of ANA formation are influenced significantly by the genotype of the animal with GVH disease.