Autoimmune haemolytic disease in mice after exposure to a methylating carcinogen.

N-Methyl-N-nitrosourea (MNU) but not methyl methanesulphonate (MMS) induced both autoimmune haemolytic anaemia and thymic lymphoma in susceptible strains of mice, particularly the C57BL/6. These effects could be positively correlated with the formation of O6-methylguanine in target DNA. All murine lymphoid cells showed lack of ability to remove O6-methylguanine from their DNA, therefore the variation of responses between different mouse strains indicated that other host factors, probably genetic, must be involved. The results do indicate however that a potent pre-mutagenic DNA base modification can initiate the events leading to autoimmune disease in susceptible mice.