Two distinct monoclonal natural thymocytotoxic autoantibodies from New Zealand black mouse

Autoimmune-prone NZB and NZB x NZW F1 mice have a large amount of autoantibodies cytotoxic for thymocytes (natural thymocytotoxic autoantibodies, NTA). We established two distinct monoclonal NTAs (NTA260 and NTA204) from a NZB mouse that react with the majority, but not all of these thymocytes. Flow cytometry analysis showed that NTA260 is positive on subpopulations of peripheral T cells from young mice, in which approximately 65% of CD4+ and 85% of CD8+ T cells were NTA260+. NTA260 also reacted with brain tissues of mice and rats, including Purkinje cells in the cerebellum. Western blot analysis showed that the molecular weight of NTA260 antigen was 55 kDa. In contrast to NTA260, NTA204 reacted with peripheral B cells but not with peripheral T cells in mice. NTA204 also reacted with peripheral blood granulocytes and bone marrow myeloid cells from both mice and rats. An immunofluorescence inhibition assay revealed the presence of autoantibodies with specificities of each NTA260 and NTA204 in the sera from NZB mice. As a selective decline in the subset of NTA260+ T cells but not NTA204+ B cells was observed with aging of NZB and NZB x NZW F1 hybrid mice, NTA260 is at least partly related to the observed immunological abnormalities of T cells in these autoimmune-prone New Zealand mice.