Idiotypic markers of polyclonal B cell activation. Public idiotypes shared by monoclonal antibodies derived from patients with systemic lupus erythematosus or leprosy.

We investigated idiotypic markers of monoclonal antibodies derived from patients with polyclonal B-cell activation. Four monoclonal antibodies with different ligand binding specificities derived from a patient with lepromatous leprosy and three monoclonal anti-DNA antibodies from two patients with SLE were studied. Three new public idiotopes, which were common to monoclonal antibodies from all three patients, were defined by five polyclonal rabbit antiidiotypes, two monoclonal mouse antiidiotopes, and a monoclonal mouse antibody against a synthetic peptide that contains residues of the heavy chain CDR-1 of a monoclonal lupus anti-DNA antibody. The antibody against the synthetic idiotype was found to react with native immunoglobulins in solution. One idiotope was found to be consistently immunogenic in all animals tested. Since the three patients are of different ethnic origins, these shared idiotypes are probably encoded by germline V genes. These genes may be recurrently expressed in states of polyclonal B-cell activation, regardless of etiology. The results suggest that some autoantibodies arise by expansion of a pool of precursors in the normal antibody repertoire.