Increased levels of antibodies to heat shock proteins with increasing age in Mrl/Mp-lpr/lpr mice.

Approximately 30% of human patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) develop IgG autoantibodies to the highly conserved 90 kDa heat shock protein (hsp90). The development of anti-hsp90 antibodies is shown here to be paralleled in the Mrl/lpr mouse, which is an acknowledged model for SLE, but not in control BALB/c mice (P = 0.005). The generation of these antibodies appears to be closely linked to the onset of disease and titres of these antibodies increase with age, but there is no correlation with well-established clinical parameters of disease. Antibodies to hsp70 and hsp65 are also observed in the Mrl/lpr model; these antibodies appear to be unrelated to the pathogenesis of the disease.