Genetic control of antinuclear antibodies in mice inoculated with the moloney leukaemia virus.

The production of antinuclear antibodies (ANA) was studied after inoculation with Moloney leukaemia virus (M-MuLV) in different H-2 congenic strains of mice. Using a new sensitive method for ANA detection, it was demonstrated that M-MuLV-induced ANA were genetically controlled by several different factors. A high viral production was first required for ANA triggering. Among viremic animals both high and low ANA producers were observed. H-2 and non H-2-linked genes were involved in the control of M-MuLV-induced ANA; these genes were different from those involved in the control of viremia. The H2b haplotype was associated with an increased ANA response, the transmission of the responder phenotype being intermediate. Non-H-2-linked genes must also control M-MuLV-induced ANA, as demonstrated in mice having the same H-2 haplotypes, since with equivalent viremias they produced different amounts of ANA. No linkage with X chromosome was found.