In vitro effects of native DNA and cytokines on anti-dsDNA antibody secretion by peripheral blood mononuclear cells from patients with SLE

Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from 6 patients with active and 6 with inactive SLE were cultured in vitro, and the amounts of specific anti-double stranded DNA(anti-dsDNA) antibodies of the IgG class were determined in the the culture supernatant before and after stimulation. It was shown that the antibody level in sera of active SLE patients and their PBMC culture supernatant before stimulation was significantly higher than from subjects with inactive SLE. But the latter showed marked elevation in comparison with that from normal controls. The level of anti-dsDNA secretion in vitro showed close correlation with that in sera (gamma=0.9882). nDNA can specifically stimulate PBMC from SLE patients to secrete anti-dsDNA antibody but has no effect on normal lymphocytes. Both rIL-2 and rIFN-gamma are able to enhance anti-dsDNA antibody production by PBMC from active amd inactive SLE patients. It was also found that nDNA antigen can coact with rIL-2 to induce anti-dsDNA antibody secretion by PBMC in actice SLE patients.