139During B cell development, the near random nature of the VDJ recombination process leads to the unavoidable production of self-reactive antibodies. In fact, studies in humans have demonstrated that many if not most newly generated B cells are autoreactive ( 1 ). Extensive studies of self-tolerant B cells in transgenic mouse models have revealed the complicated systems of B cell selection used to avoid autoimmunity. Current models suggest that B cells expressing a transgenic surface Ig that binds DNA or protein autoantigens fi rst attempt to alter the B cell receptor (BCR) by further variable gene rearrangement using " receptor editing " ( 2, 3 ). If receptor editing is unsuccessful, then the offending B cell may be eliminated by clonal deletion ( 4, 5 ) or it may enter maturity but with reduced or altered function so that it no longer reacts to the self-antigens, which is referred to as clonal anergy ( 6 -8 ). In this paper, we describe a human B cell population that is anergic. Clonal anergy was fi rst conceived by Nossal and Pike in 1980 ( 6 ) to explain why injection of neonatal mice with high dosages of an antigen induced deletion of the specifi c B cells, whereas lesser dosages allowed retention of the specifi c B cells, but the cells were incapable of becoming antibody-secreting cells. In 1988, Goodnow et al. ( 8 )

Systemic lupus erythematosus is an autoimmune disease characterized by multi-system involvement and autoantibody production. Abnormal T cell DNA methylation and type-I interferon play an important role in the pathogenesis of lupus. We performed a genome-wide DNA methylation study in two independent sets of lupus patients and matched healthy controls to characterize the DNA methylome in naïve CD4+ T cells in lupus. DNA methylation was quantified for over 485,000 methylation sites across the genome, and differentially methylated sites between lupus patients and controls were identified and then independently replicated. Gene expression analysis was also performed from the same cells to investigate the relationship between the DNA methylation changes observed and mRNA expression levels. We identified and replicated 86 differentially methylated CG sites between patients and controls in 47 genes, with the majority being hypomethylated. We observed significant hypomethylation in interferon-regulated genes in naïve T cells from lupus patients, including IFIT1, IFIT3, MX1, STAT1, IFI44L, USP18, TRIM22 and BST2, suggesting epigenetic transcriptional accessibility in these genetic loci. Indeed, the majority of the hypomethylated genes (21 out of 35 hypomethylated genes) are regulated by type I interferon. The hypomethylation in interferon-regulated genes was not related to lupus disease activity. Gene expression analysis showed overexpression of these genes in total but not naïve CD4+ T cells from lupus patients. Our data suggest epigenetic “poising” of interferon-regulated genes in lupus naïve CD4+ T cells, argue for a novel pathogenic implication for abnormal T cell DNA methylation in lupus, and suggest a mechanism for type-I interferon hyper-responsiveness in lupus T cells.

Determination of the origin and fate of autoreactive B cells is critical to understanding and treating autoimmune diseases. We report that, despite being derived from healthy people, antibodies from B cells that have class switched to IgD via genetic recombination (and thus become class switched to C delta [C delta-CS] cells) are highly reactive to self antigens. Over half of the antibodies from C delta-CS B cells bind autoantigens on human epithelioma cell line 2 (HEp-2) cells or antinuclear antigens, and a quarter bind double-stranded DNA; both groups of antibodies are frequently polyreactive. Intriguingly, some C delta-CS B cells have accumulated basic residues in the antibody variable regions that mediate anti-DNA reactivity via somatic hypermutation and selection, while other C delta-CS B cells are naturally autoreactive. Though the total percentage was appreciably less than for C delta-CS cells, a surprising 31% of IgG memory cell antibodies were somewhat autoreactive, and as expected, about 24% of naive cell antibodies were autoreactive. We interpret these findings to indicate either that autoreactive B cells can be induced to class switch to IgD or that autoreactive B cells that use IgD as the B cell receptor are not effectively deleted. Determination of the mechanism by which the majority of C delta-CS B cells are autoreactive may be important in understanding peripheral tolerance mechanisms and may provide insight into the enigmatic function of the IgD antibody.

Objective Primary Sjögren’s syndrome (pSS) is a systemic autoimmune disease with incompletely understood etiology. Very little is known about the role of epigenetic dysregulation in the pathogenesis of pSS. Methods We performed a genome-wide DNA methylation study in naïve CD4+ T cells in eleven pSS patients compared to age-, sex-, and ethnicity-matched healthy controls. Cytosine methylation was quantified using the Illumina Infinium HumanMethylation450 BeadChip array and validated using bisulfite sequencing. Results We identified 553 hypomethylated and 200 hypermethylated CpG sites in naïve CD4+ T cells from pSS patients compared to healthy matched controls, representing 311 hypomethylated and 115 hypermethylated gene regions. Hypomethylated genes in pSS include LTA, coding for Lymphotoxin α. Other relevant genes such as CD247, TNFRSF25, PTPRC, GSTM1 and PDCD1 were also hypomethylated. The interferon signature pathway was represented by hypomethylation of STAT1, IFI44L, USP18 and IFITM1. A group of genes encoding for members of the solute carrier proteins were differentially methylated. In addition, the transcription factor RUNX1 was hypermethylated in patients, suggesting a possible connection to lymphoma predisposition. Gene ontology (GO) analysis of hypomethylated genes demonstrated enrichment of genes involved in lymphocyte activation and immune response. GO terms for hypermethylated genes included antigen processing and presentation. Conclusion This is the first epigenome-wide DNA methylation study in pSS. Our data highlight a role for DNA methylation in pSS and identify disease-associated DNA methylation changes in several genes and pathways in naïve CD4+ T cells in pSS that may be involved in the pathogenesis of this disease.