The development of glomerulonephritis in NZB/W mice is closely related to the formation of antinuclear, particularly anti-DNA, antibodies. The developing inflammatory glomerular lesions are characterized by the deposition of gammaG- and beta(1C)-globulins plus DNA and possibly other nuclear antigens, presumably as complexes, in a granular to lumpy pattern along the capillary walls and in the me...

Antinuclear activity was assessed in serum samples from a series of 40 patients with differing clinical subsets (including renal and neurological disease) of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) against a transformed keratinocyte line (SvK14)* and normal human keratinocytes. Paired serum samples were studied during disease activity and inactivity, and the effects of ultraviolet radiation on the a...

Abstract Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an incurable autoimmune B cell disorder that in part due to ineffective clearance of nuclear antigens and activation the TLR pathway. The extrafollicular (EF) differentiation pathway antibody secreting cells (ASCs) recognized play a prominent role generating pathogenic antibodies both mice human. For example, novel population CD21 loCD11c +B identi...

Previously we observed that sera from recipients of allogeneic bone marrow transplants who developed extensive chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) intensively stained the nucleolar region of target cells in indirect immunofluorescence microscopy. To identify the target antigens, immunoblotting experiments were performed using isolated nuclei, isolated nucleoli, and purified nuclear and nuc...

The role of nuclear lamins in DNA replication is unclear. To address this, nuclei were assembled in Xenopus extracts containing AraC, a reversible inhibitor that blocks near the onset of the elongation phase of replication. Dominant-negative lamin mutants lacking their NH(2)-terminal domains were added to assembled nuclei to disrupt lamin organization. This prevented the resumption of DNA repli...

In order to determine whether estradiol modulates the proliferation and activity of somatotrophic cells in vitro, a study of GH-immunoreactive cells was carried out in pituitary monolayer cultures obtained from male adult rats treated with 10(-6)M estradiol for 3 hours. Cellular activity was evaluated in a morphometric study of GH-immunoreactive cells. The proliferation rate was determined by d...

Ubiquitin conjugation provides a crucial signaling role in hundreds of cellular pathways; however, a structural understanding of ubiquitinated substrates is lacking. One important substrate is monoubiquitinated PCNA (PCNA-Ub), which signals for recruitment of damage-tolerant polymerases in the translesion synthesis (TLS) pathway of DNA damage avoidance. We use a novel and efficient enzymatic me...

PCNA (proliferating-cell nuclear antigen) is a ring-shaped protein that encircles duplex DNA and plays an essential role in many DNA metabolic processes. The PCNA protein interacts with a large number of cellular factors and modulates their enzymatic activities. In the present paper, we summarize the structures, functions and interactions of the archaeal PCNA proteins.

Patients with systemic lupus erythematosus often possess antibodies against two nuclear antigens called Sm and RNP (ribonucleoprotein). We have established the molecular identity of these antigens by analyzing immune precipitates of nuclear extracts from mouse Ehrlich ascites cells labeled with (32)P and (35)S. Anti-Sm serum selectively precipitates six small nuclear RNA molecules (snRNAs); ant...