Antibodies reacting with denatured DNA

Antibodies reacting with denatured DNA which occur frequently in the sera of SLE patients have also been observed in the sera of patients with diseases such as myasthenia gravis (Sturgill et al., 1964), chronic active hepatitis, infectious mononucleosis or rheumatoid arthritis (Koffler et al., 

Both the early studies and more recent determination of the specificity of anti-denatured DNA antibodies have shown that the responses vary according to the sera used. The variability of the antigenic determinants is reflected by the difference of susceptibility of the reaction to inhibition by enzymatic products of degradation of DNA of different size, or by apurinic acid. The reactions of several sera with denatured DNA are inhibited by purines, others by pyrimidines or by both. The size of the antigenic determinants is equally variable (see Levine and Stollar, 1968). 

To define the specificity of SLE antibodies reacting with denatured DNA Koffler et al., (1971) used polydeoxyribonucleotides as test antigens, or as inhibitors of the reaction. The specificities were multiple antibodies directed against a determinant common to one or more polydeox5nibonucleotides and to single-stranded DNA, and antibodies with single base specificities were observed. Whatever the specificity of these antibodies, no significant difference appears to exist in the reactivity with DNA from different sources. 

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