We are grateful to M. Lewis for the processing of the samples for histology and to F. Reid and D. Mitchell for their help. We thank all of the staff in the animal facility for their technical assistance. This work was supported by the Wellcome Trust (grant number 061438). JCH was a recipient of a fellowship from the National Institute of Health, Spain (BEFI 99/9212). Conflicts of interest. The authors have declared that no conflicts of interest exist.
Author contributions. MJW, TJV, and MB conceived and designed the experiments. AEB, KLR, JW, JC-H, and RJR performed the experiments. AEB, KLR, RJR, and HTC analyzed the data. MB wrote the paper.
Academic Editor: David Nemazee, Scripps Research Institute
¤ Current address: The Wellcome Trust, London, United Kingdom
Citation: Bygrave AE, Rose KL, Cortes-Hernandez J, Warren J, Rigby RJ, et al. (2004) Spontaneous autoimmunity in 129 and C57BL/6 mice—Implications for autoimmunity described in gene-targeted mice. PLoS Biol 2(8): e243.
Abbreviations
Ab antibody
ANA anti-nuclear antibody
AEU arbitrary ELISA unit
Apcs −/−  Apcs-deficient mice
Apcs  serum amyloid P component gene
dsDNA double-stranded DNA
LOD logarithm of odds
QTL quantitative trait linkage
SLE systemic lupus erythematosus
ssDNA anti-single-stranded DNA