Anti-Ia treatment prevents lupus-like autoimmune syndrome in mice neonatally tolerized to alloantigens.

Neonatal injection of semi-allogeneic F1 spleen cells into newborn parental mice results in induction of tolerance to the corresponding class I alloantigen and chimerism. This state of tolerance is associated with the development of a transient lupus-like autoimmune syndrome. Previous experiments performed in our laboratories have shown that host CD4+ T lymphocytes and donor B cells persist in the host and are essential in triggering the autoimmune syndrome observed in neonatally tolerized mice. In this study, we show that early treatment of tolerized mice with anti-donor MHC class II mAb totally prevents the lupus-like syndrome. Moreover, delayed treatment significantly decreases, but to a lesser extent, autoimmune pathological features in tolerized mice. Taken together, these results show that lupus-like autoimmune syndrome developed by neonatally tolerized mice is efficiently prevented by anti-Ia treatment without interfering with the induction of tolerance.