Autoimmunity induced by syngeneic splenocyte membranes carrying irreversibly adsorbed paramyxovirus.

Newcastle disease virus was adsorbed to a membrane fraction prepared from splenocytes, and the resulting preparation was injected into syngeneic C3H mice. Complement fixing and cytotoxic antibodies reactive with syngeneic tissue and intact cells developed, and some mice died with autoimmune disease characterized by wasting, severe kidney damage, and loss of lymphoid tissue as described previously for animals receiving the membrane fraction of a syngeneic lymphoma in which Newcastle disease virus had grown. Similar experiments were done with L929 mouse fibroblasts and allogeneic spleen membrane fractions. With syngeneic spleen tissue and L929 fibroblasts, serological evidence of autoimmunity appeared after several injections, but deaths from autoimmunity were considerably delayed unless Freund's complete adjuvant was given with the antigen. The results suggest that antigen modification occurs after adsorption of the paramyxovirus to normal tissue as well as lymphoma cell membranes.