Description
High levels of serum autoantibodies against deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) are observed in most patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), therefore the presence of anti-DNA antibodies in serum is considered a valuable marker for the diagnosis of SLE. Especially considering that the serum anti-DNA antibodies form anti-DNA/DNA immune complexes which play important roles in the immunopathogenesis of renal injury also known as lupus nephritis. With regards to the specificity of anti-DNA antibodies, anti-single stranded DNA (ssDNA) lgG antibodies are elicited in the early stages of SLE, whereas anti-double stranded DNA (dsDNA) lgG antibody levels correlate with the severity of SLE. On the other hand, anti-dsDNA lgM antibodies are not specific to SLE, but correlate with the prognosis of lupus nephritis in patients with SLE. Therefore, evaluating immunoglobulin levels of different isotypes against individual DNA types may indicate the stages and prognosis of SLE. Mouse models, which provide relevant information to the human condition, elucidate the cellular and genetic requirements for inducing SLE. For example, in spontaneous murine NZB/W F1 lupus models, anti-dsDNA antibody isotype class switching from lgM to lgG indicates renal failure which is a similar trend in human SLE. Nonetheless, in artificial pristane-induced Balb/c lupus models, anti-ssDNA lgM antibodies solely induce SLE. In order to advance studies in these fields, CD provides mouse anti-DNA antibody ELISA kits to elucidate the diverse roles of anti-DNA antibodies in these mouse SLE models