Pristane was injected intraperitoneally into mice of several strains, inducing an inflammatory seropositive arthritis in susceptible strains. The evolving histologic features included synovial hyperplasia, periostitis, and progressive marginal erosions. Multiple serologic immune abnormalities, including rheumatoid factor and anticollagen antibodies, also developed. Genetic analysis indicated that the major histocompatibility complex (H-2), C5 hemolytic complement (Hc), Newcastle disease virus-induced interferon (IF-l), and athymic (nu/ nu) loci were involved in regulating susceptibility to pristane-induced arthritis. This experimental murine disease may provide a novel model of rheumatoid arthritis.

Previous studies have shown that the peptides obtained from accessory cell and B-cell Ta molecules are identical but that the a chains of B-cell Ia molecules are more extensively sialylated than those of accessory cells. The present studies were designed to determine whether this glycosylation difference can account for the functional difference in the capacity of the two cell types to activate alloreactive T cells. The experimental data show that normal resting B cells lack the capacity to induce DNA synthesis or differentiation in alloreactive T cells. T cells do recognize polymorphisms in B-cell Ia molecules, however, because they can be specifically primed for a subsequent proliferative stimulus of the same haplotype. The mitogenic signal for T cells is delivered by either allogeneic accessory cells or neuraminidase-treated B cells. Therefore, the T-cell receptor(s) may contain a site specific for the nonpolymorphic asialocarbohydrate moiety on the a chains of accessory cell Ia molecules.

Hypersensitivity reactions to systemically administered drugs cannot be predicted using available preclinical models. This research is a collaborative project to evaluate the ability of the Lymph Node Proliferation Assay (LNPA) to predict systemic hypersensitivity caused by pharmaceuticals. The assay design is a modification of the Local Lymph Node Assay with the major modification being injection of the test substance subcutaneously to achieve a known systemic exposure to the drug. Fourteen compounds were evaluated in the LNPA. These were two clinically negative drugs (Metformin, phenobarbital), an assay positive control (streptozotocin), eight human hypersensitivity positive drugs (sulfamethoxazole, procainamide, clonidine, ofloxacin, nevirapine, abacavir, lamotrigine, zomepirac), and 3 investigational drugs (CM40874, CM40954 and CM40420), one of which caused hypersensitivity in primates. Hypersensitivity-positive drugs were classified as such based on at least two of three independent data sources: U.S. FDA postmarketing database, drug labeling information, and clinical trial data. All drugs were tested in multiple laboratories for a total of 2-12 evaluations per compound. The pure drug substance was used for testing if it could be obtained commercially, otherwise the marketed drug formulation was used. Neither of the negative control drugs showed a positive reaction in the test system. Four of the eight hypersensitivity positive drugs showed a mixed or positive reaction. Two of the three investigational compounds gave a positive response. A smaller number of LNPAs were run concurrently using footpad injection and evaluation of the popliteal lymph node and gave generally comparable results. Additional development may increase the reproducibility of the assay and facilitate detection of drugs that require metabolic activation to become allergenic, or drugs for which there is dose-limiting toxicity. The data suggest that this method might be useful as a first-line screen to identify candidate drugs that are more likely to cause a high prevalence of human drug hypersensitivity.

Leukocyte fractions extracted from the tumor mass and the lymphoid organs of C57BL/6 (B6) mice carrying murine sarcoma virus-induced tumors contained primed cytolytic T-lymphocyte (CTL) precursor cells, in addition to active cytotoxic T cells. These leukocyte fractions gave a secondary response when stimulated in vitro with syngeneic tumor cells, generating large numbers of specific CTL. The activity of these CTL (H-2b) was apparently H-2-restricted, because it was ineffective on tumor targets bearing strongly cross-reacting tumor-specific antigens but with the H-2d haplotype. Furthermore, only H-2b cells bearing the Friend, Moloney, Rauscher-associated antigen, such as Rauscher leukemia virus-induced RBL-5 cells and Friend leukemia virus-induced HFL/b cells, were lysed efficiently. B male GV cells (H-2b cells induced by Gross leukemia virus) were not affected by the same CTL. We propose the existence of a dynamic state involving the migration of primed CTL precursor cells between the lymphoid organs and the tumor mass, as well as the differentiation of these precursor cells within the tumor mass into highly specific CTL.

An H-2Db heterozygous tumor cell line and a variant subclone bearing a mutant gene product were used to analyze the H-2Db specificity of cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) generated during a Moloney murine sarcoma virus (MSV) infection. When the mutant cells were used as targets for MSV-specific CTL, the amount of cell lysis, compared with that seen with the nonmutant parental cells, was drastically decreased. However, cells of the mutant clones remained susceptible to allogeneic CTL specific for the nonmutant H-2Db molecule. The mutant cells also did not differ from the parent cells in their level of viral antigen expression. Biochemically the parental and mutant molecules were similar but not identical. The data indicate that minor alterations of the H-2 antigens caused by somatic mutation may prevent virus-infected cells from being recognized as targets by CTL.