Tolerance to the HLA-B27 and Klebsiella pneumoniae crossreactive epitope in mice transgenic for HLA-B2705 and human beta 2-microglobulin.

Abstract

To determine whether immunization of HLA-B27 transgenic mice with a peptide containing the crossreactive QTDRED sequence found in B2705 and Klebsiella nitrogenase induces a detectable immune response. Mice were immunized with a synthesized peptide corresponding to the 65-84 region of HLA-B2705 in Freund's complete adjuvant (FCA). Mice were bled for antibody assays 10 days after the last injection. Popliteal lymph node cells for T cell proliferation assays were obtained 10 days after foot pad inoculation. The healthy control mice responded well to the peptide in both humoral and cellular assays. The transgenic mice carrying HLA-B2705 did not, although they did respond as expected to the FCA. Our data suggest that the homologous epitopes present in HLA-B2705 and Klebsiella do not induce a crossreactive immune response in animals naturally tolerant to the HLA antigen.