| First Author | Molano ID | Year | 2000 |
| Journal | Clin Immunol | Volume | 94 |
| Issue | 1 | Pages | 24-32 |
| PubMed ID | 10607487 | Mgi Jnum | J:110248 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:3639787 | Doi | 10.1006/clim.1999.4797 |
| Citation | Molano ID, et al. (2000) Effect of a genetic deficiency of terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase on autoantibody production by C57BL6 Fas(lpr) mice. Clin Immunol 94(1):24-32 |
| abstractText | Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase (TdT) adds nontemplate coded nucleotides (N additions) between the recombining ends of immunoglobulin and T cell receptor genes. These nucleotides add significant diversity to the Ig and TCR repertoires. Amino acids coded for by these nucleotides play a key role in the binding of self antigens by autoantibodies and autoreactive T cells. To determine the effect of a lack of N additions on autoantibody production, we bred the TdT knockout genotype onto the autoimmune C57BL/6-Fas(lpr) background. TdT-deficient mice had significantly lower sera anti-DNA and rheumatoid factor activity than their TdT-producing littermates. C57BL/6-Fas(lpr) TdT-deficient mice had shorter VH CDR3 regions and fewer VH CDR3 arginines [0.6% versus 4. 7%] than their TdT-producing littermates. These data indicate that the absence of TdT limited the production of anti-DNA antibodies and rheumatoid factors in C57BL/6-Fas(lpr) mice, likely due to constraints on Ig diversity secondary to the lack of TdT-derived N additions. |
