Autoantibody activity of immunoglobulins isolated from B-cell follicular lymphomas

Previous work with monoclonal Igs (MIgs) has demonstrated that a high proportion of paraproteins bind to self-antigens such as the Fc fragment of IgG, Ii blood group antigens, cytoskeleton proteins, DNA, and myelin-associated glycoprotein (MAG). Recent work in CLL indicates that CD5+ B lymphocytes are frequently committed to production of autoantibodies. We have examined the antibody specificity of MIgs derived from the tumor cells of 31 different patients with CD5- B-cell lymphomas. Our results indicate that the tumor cells from 8 of these 31 patients (25.8%) express Igs with autoantibody activity. In two cases antibody activity was multispecific. In four cases, antibody activity was exclusively directed against the Fc fragment of IgG, whereas the two other cases bound to both Fc fragment of IgG and nuclear antigens. Most non-Hodgkin's lymphomas (NHL) are derived from CD5- B cells. These results indicate that like CLL, NHL also express Igs that frequently have autoantibody activity.