Antibodies to dAT detected by membrane filtration

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Abstract
Sera from patients with active systemic lupus erythematosus caused the retention of the radioactively labeled synthetic polynucleotide 14C‐dAT on cellulose nitrate filters. The amount of 14C‐dAT bound correlated with the presence of hypocomplementemia and active renal disease. Sera containing only anti‐single‐stranded DNA antibodies did not bind 14C‐dAT but did bind 125I DNA from E coli that had been prefiltered to remove ssDNA contamination. Inhibition experiments also indicated the presence of antigenic differences between 14C‐dAT and prefiltered 125I‐E coli DNA. The data suggest that dAT carries one of the major antigenic specificities for antinative DNA antibodies in SLE, and that cellulose nitrate filtration fails to remove a significant proportion of contaminating single‐stranded DNA determinants in non‐synthetic DNA.