Skip to main content
  • Research article
  • Published:

Lack of autoantibody production associated with cytomegalovirus infection

Abstract

To confirm an association between cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection and the presence of antibodies to Smith (Sm), to ribonucleoprotein (RNP), and to a component of the U1 ribonucleoproteins (U1-70 kD), we measured antibodies to these protein antigens using an enzyme immunoassay and an immunoblot. The antibodies were measured in the sera of 80 healthy subjects, one-half of whom were naturally CMV seropositive and one-half were CMV seronegative, and in eight subjects immunized with a live attenuated strain of CMV. None of the vaccinees developed antibodies to Sm, to RNP, or to U1-70 kD at either 4 or 12 months after immunization. Additionally, there was no statistically significant association between levels of antibodies to Sm or to RNP and between sera obtained from vaccinees, natural CMV seropositive individuals, and CMV seronegative individuals. One CMV seropositive serum and one CMV seronegative serum tested positive for antibodies to U1-70 kD. These data indicate that neither wild-type infection nor the live-attenuated Towne vaccine frequently induce autoantibody production.

Introduction

Antecedent infection with many different microbes is often associated with the development of autoimmune disease in humans, but the pathogenic mechanisms involved, if any, are unknown. Most of the microbes associated with autoimmune disease have been viruses, particularly cytomegalovirus (CMV), Epstein–Barr virus, and varicella–zoster virus. CMV has been associated with the increased production of rheumatoid factor, antiphospholipid antibodies, cold agglutinins, antimyosin antibodies, anti-endothelial cell antibodies, and antiganglioside antibodies. One study found an increased incidence of anti-CMV antibodies among patients with systemic lupus erythematosus [1–11].

Neutralizing antibodies induced by CMV are directed primarily against the major envelope protein of CMV, glycoprotein B (gB). Antibodies to CMV gB share some homology with rheumatoid factor, thus providing a theoretical relationship between CMV infection and autoimmune disease [12]. An adenovirus–CMV gB construct vaccine administered to mice induced a statistically significant increase in the production of antibodies to U1-70 kD antibody in both normal and autoimmune-prone mice [13]. Newkirk et al. recently reported an increased incidence of antibodies to Sm antigen and antibodies to ribonucleoprotein (RNP) among naturally CMV-infected individuals, as well as an increase in antibodies to U1-70 kD [14].

To confirm the findings of Newkirk et al. [14], we evaluated sera from individuals either naturally infected with CMV or immunized with the live attenuated Towne strain of CMV for the presence of antibodies to three antigens: Sm, RNP, and U1-70 kD. We also assessed the correlation between production of antibodies to gB and antibodies to Sm or RNP.

Methods

Subjects

Anonymously coded serum specimens had been stored at -80°C. These were preimmunization screening sera from 80 normal healthy adult females who volunteered for a Towne vaccine study. Forty naturally seropositive and 40 seronegative sera were used. Subjects were aged between 20 and 53 years (the ages of four individuals were not recorded). Also included were postimmunization serial sera from eight normal healthy women who had received 6000 plaque forming units of the live attenuated Towne vaccine as a single subcutaneous injection. Following immunization, all eight subjects developed antibodies to CMV and to CMV gB. Seventy-five per cent of the CMV seropositive subjects and 85% of the CMV seronegative subjects were Caucasian; the remainder were Afro-American.

Screening for anti-CMV antibodies

Sera were tested for the presence or absence of IgG antibodies to CMV by either latex agglutination (CMVScan; Becton Dickinson, Sparks, MD, USA) or by enzyme immunoassay (EIA) as previously described [15].

Detection of antibodies against Sm and RNP

An indirect, noncompetitive EIA was used for both Sm and RNP antigens to detect IgG antibodies. Microplate wells coated with antigen bound human antibody, which was subsequently bound by an enzyme-labeled conjugate antibody and quantitated colorimetrically (Varelisa; Pharmacia & Upjohn, Freiburg, Germany). Sera were diluted 1:101 for both assays.

The Sm antigen used in this assay was purified from calf thymus. The human recombinant RNP antigens used included the U1-70 k, U1A, and U1C antigens. For both Sm and RNP, specific quantitative values for each specimen were obtained by extrapolation of optical densities (OD) from a standard curve derived from six points. For Sm, the negative/positive cutoff value was 10 IU/ml serum or OD = 0.52. For RNP, the negative/positive cutoff value was 5 IU/ml serum or OD = 0.32.

Detection of antibodies to U1-70 kD

To detect the presence of IgG antibodies to the U1-70 kD ribonuclear protein, both immunoblotting and EIA methods were used as described previously [16–18]. Each sample was tested by immunoblot against Jurkat cell lysates with a 1:100 dilution of sera, and by EIA against a bacterially produced U1-70 kD fusion protein that comprised residues 1–205 of u1-70 kD. All EIA assays were performed using a serum dilution of 1:1000 and were run taking the average OD of duplicate wells. EIA results were repeated for any samples where the OD of the duplicate wells varied by more than 0.05, and for all samples with positive results by either EIA or immunoblot. In cases where discrepant results were obtained between immunoblot and EIA testing, sera were immunoblotted using a more sensitive technique against both intact and apoptotic Jurkat lysates, as previously described [18, 19] using sera diluted 1:5000.

Negative immunoblot and EIA results demonstrated the absence of significant titers of IgG antibodies to U1-70 kD. Positive results on immunoblot and EIA or a positive result on one of these two tests and a positive immunoblot for apoptotic U1-70 kD demonstrated the presence of antibodies to U1-70 kD. A positive immunoblot result that was not confirmed by EIA or follow-up immunoblot would probably reflect recognition of an antigen other than U1-70 kD with similar electrophoretic motility (i.e. a negative result). An isolated positive EIA was an indeterminate finding; the weaker the recognition, the less likely it was to be valid. A positive EIA result was an OD value above 0.100. If either the EIA or the immunoblot produced positive results, the more sensitive apoptotic assay was used to verify the presence of antibodies to U1-70 kD. The sensitivity of these assays has been previously established [16–19].

Detection of antibodies to gB

Quantitative levels of antibodies against CMV gB were measured by EIA in all seropositive sera as previously described [20]. The OD value obtained for the 1:1600 dilution for each serum was used for statistical calculations. The gB antigen used in this assay was a recombinant derivative of human CMV strain Towne gB produced as a secreted protein in Chinese hamster ovary cells [21]. The recombinant gB includes amino acids 1–676 of the extracellular domain. The proteolytic cleavage site at amino acid 437 was blocked by the site-specific mutation of amino acid residues 433, 434, and 436 [22].

Statistical calculations

Comparisons were carried out using Student's t test or chi-square analysis. Regression analysis was performed using Sigma Plot (version 1.02; Jandel Corporation, San Rafael, CA, USA).

Results

Antibodies against Sm and RNP

Using the manufacturer's sera to establish a negative/positive cutoff value, none of the sera tested contained detectable levels of antibodies to either Sm or RNP (Table 1). For Sm, using the mean OD plus two standard deviations (Table 1) of the 40 CMV seronegative sera to establish a negative/positive cutoff value, none of the 40 CMV seropositive sera were positive, one of the CMV seronegative sera was positive (OD = 0.422), and none of the sera from the vaccine recipients were positive. For RNP, using the mean OD plus two standard deviations (Table 1) of the 40 CMV seronegative sera to establish a negative/positive cutoff value, two of the 40 CMV seronegative sera were positive (OD = 0.22 and 0.30), three of the CMV seropositive sera were positive (OD = 0.25, 0.26 and 0.25), and none of the sera from the vaccine recipients were positive.

Table 1 Association between cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection and antibodies to Smith (Sm) and to ribonucleoprotein (RNP)

To determine whether there was a statistically significant association between levels of antibodies to CMV gB and the levels of antibodies to Sm antigen or RNP antigen, a simple linear regression analysis of gB OD values versus Sm and RNP OD values for sera from CMV seropositive subjects and for sera from vaccines at 4 and 12 months after immunization was performed. No significant correlations were found (Table 2).

Table 2 Association between antibody levels to cytomegalovirus (CMV) glycoprotein B (gB) and antibody levels to Smith (Sm) and to ribonucleoprotein (RNP) in seropositive sera

Antibodies against U1-70 kD

Using the EIA with U1-70 kD as the antigen, only one of 104 sera tested was positive (OD = 0.121). That one serum was negative using an immunoblot with apoptotic Jurkat cells. Using an immunoblot, three of 104 sera were positive and three sera were weakly positive. None of the three weakly positive sera were positive using an immunoblot with apoptotic Jurkat cells, but two of the three sera positive by immunoblot were also positive using an immunoblot with apoptotic Jurkat cells. No sera was positive both by immunoblot and by EIA. There was no significant difference for the rate of positivity between sera obtained for CMV seropositive subjects and CMV seronegative subjects (Table 3). None of the recipients of CMV vaccine developed antibodies to U1-70 kD (Table 3).

Table 3 Association between cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection and autoantibodies to a component of the U1 ribonucleoproteins (U1-70 kD)

Discussion

The present study was designed to confirm the report of Newkirk et al. They reported that, among the sera of 100 normal healthy adults (50 CMV seropositive and 50 CMV seronegative), 54% contained antibodies to RNP, 50% contained antibodies to Sm, and 33% contained antibodies to U1-70 kD [14].

Newkirk et al. also observed that the frequency of autoantibodies to each of the antigens occurred more frequently among CMV seropositive subjects than among CMV seronegative subjects[14]. For CMV seropositive subjects, they observed that 42 (84%) subjects had antibodies to RNP, 32 (64%) had antibodies to Sm, and 23 (46%) had antibodies to U1-70 kD [14]. If Newkirk et al. used a negative/positive cutoff value of the mean plus three standard deviations then, overall, less than 10% of their sera contained autoantibodies.

We could not reproduce the data of Newkirk et al. The subjects in the study of Newkirk et al. were similar to our subjects; 80% female and 98% Caucasian. Although there are only a few published reports on the frequency of these antibodies in normal populations, those published reports all find a frequency of between 0 and 3%, similar to those reported in the present study [23–27]. One study of over 1000 healthy pregnant and nonpregnant Israeli women found that none had IgG antibodies to either Sm or RNP. IgM antibodies, however, were detected in 4% or less of subjects. Patients with autoimmune disease have predominantly IgG antibodies to Sm and to RNP, and to a lesser extent IgM antibodies, whereas patients with inactive autoimmune disease are most likely to have IgM antibodies to these antigens [28, 29]. Both the present study and that of Newkirk et al. measured IgG antibodies to these nuclear antigens.

Several factors may account for the difference between our results and those of Newkirk et al. Differences in assay methods or antigens could be important. This is suggested by the fact that the mean OD (>0.5) observed by Newkirk et al. in their Sm and RNP EIA assays was significantly higher than the mean OD (<0.15) observed in the present study. Another possibility relates to the negative/positive cutoff value used. For all three antigens, Newkirk et al. used EIA assays and established their negative/positive cutoff value using the mean plus two standard deviations of 15 CMV seronegative sera [14]. This appears to have resulted in a negative/positive cutoff value significantly lower than that observed in the present study using either the manufacturer's recommended cutoff value or our own cutoff value established with the 40 seronegative sera. To detect antibodies to U1-70 kD, Newkirk et al. used only an EIA assay. Using the EIA assay, we found only one of 104 sera contained antibodies to this protein.

Another factor that may account for the difference between our results and those of Newkirk et al. is the prevalence of the HLA antigen DR4. This HLA type occurs among 60% of patients with autoimmune disease and antibodies to U1-70 kD, but its prevalence in the normal healthy individuals is only about 25% [16, 30]. Hence, if the association between HLA DR4 and the presence of antibodies to U1-70 kD exists for healthy individuals and if, due to selection bias, our population contained very few (<4%) DR4-positive individuals and the population of Newkirk et al. contained a very high (≥ 50%) prevalence of DR4-positive subjects, this could account for the observed differences. This possibility, however, seems very improbable.

In another study, Newkirk and coworkers also observed that a recombinant gB vaccine, which expressed the gB protein of the Towne vaccine, induced antibodies to CMV gB when administered to mice, suggesting that CMV gB induces antibodies crossreactive to U1-70 kD [13]. If this is the case, it predicts a correlation between levels of antibodies to gB and U1-70 kD in sera. In humans, neither the present study or that of Newkirk and colleagues [13] found such a correlation. This indicates that either there is no such crossreactivity or that, if it exists, it occurs very infrequently or only to a few epitopes. It is also possible that the mice Newkirk and coworkers used were genetically primed to produce autoantibodies in response to this antigen.

Whether viruses cause autoimmune disease is controversial. If they do cause disease, several mechanisms may explain the association between viruses and autoimmune disease. To stimulate a complete autoimmune response, two signals (one antigen specific and one not antigen specific), are necessary [31]. The best described antigen-specific mechanism is molecular mimicry, whereby some component of the offending virus resembles the host structure on a molecular level, thus providing the template for antibody formation that may crossreact with self-antigen. Several of the nonantigen-specific signals include costimulatory cell surface markers as well as the generation of a multitude of cytokines. Theoretically, viruses may play a role in eliciting either or both of these signals.

Infection with CMV is ubiquitous within the human population, and nearly 100% of humans eventually acquire a CMV infection. On the contrary, autoimmune disease is relatively rare, occurring in less than 5% of the population. If CMV was a frequent inducer of autoantibodies, and by implication an autoimmune disease, both the frequency of autoantibodies in disease-free individuals and the incidence of autoimmune disease in the general population would be much higher than observed by other workers and ourselves. It is not excluded, however, that a low frequency of these three autoantibodies may be infrequently but significantly associated with CMV infection. To establish this will require testing of a large number of sera. For example, testing of nearly 700 sera will be required to determine whether an autoantibody frequency of 5% among CMV seropositive individuals and of 1% among CMV seronegative individuals is a significant difference.

Conclusion

We failed to detect antibodies to either Sm or RNP in individuals infected with wild-type CMV or in eight individuals vaccinated with the Towne strain of CMV. Likewise, regression analysis of levels of antibodies to CMV gB, the major antibody formed after natural infection or active immunization, failed to demonstrate a correlation with the levels of antibodies to Sm and to RNP. With regards to antibody to U1-70 kD, which may be a more sensitive indicator of autoimmune disease, the sera from only one CMV seropositive subject contained these antibodies and none of the sera of the vaccinees contained these antibodies. These results indicate that CMV infection induces these autoantibodies infrequently and that autoimmune disease associated with CMV infection is probably rare.

Abbreviations

CMV:

cytomegalovirus

EIA:

enzyme immunoassay

gB:

glycoprotein B

OD:

optical density

RNP:

ribonucleoprotein

Sm:

ribonucleoproteins recognized by antibodies from a patient named Smith

U1-70 kD:

component of the U1 ribonucleoproteins.

References

  1. Ferraro AS, Newkirk MM: Correlative studies of rheumatoid factors and anti-viral antibodies in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Clin Exp Immunol. 1993, 92: 425-431.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  2. Newkirk MM, Gram H, Heinrich GF, Ostberg L, Capra JD, Wasserman RL: Complete protein sequences of the variable regions of the cloned heavy and light chains of a human anti-cytomegalovirus antibody reveal a striking similarity to human monoclonal rheumatoid factors of the Wa idiotypic family. J Clin Invest. 1988, 81: 1511-1518.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  3. Baldwin WM, Westedt ML, van Gemert GW, Henny FC, Paul LC, Daha MR, van Es LA: Association of rheumatoid factors in renal transplant recipients with cytomegalovirus infection and not with rejection. Transplantation. 1987, 43: 658-662.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Mengarelli A, Minotti C, Palumbo G, Arcieri P, Gentile G, Iori AP, Arcese W, Mandelli F, Avvisati G: High levels of antiphospho-lipid antibodies are associated with cytomegalovirus infection in unrelated bone marrow and cord blood allogeneic stem cell transplantation. Br J Haematol. 2000, 108: 126-131. 10.1046/j.1365-2141.2000.01812.x.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Labarca JA, Rabaggliati RM, Radrigan FJ, Rojas PP, Perez CM, Ferres MV, Acuna GG, Bertin PA: Antiphospholipid syndrome associated with cytomegalovirus infection: case report and review. Clin Infect Dis. 1997, 24: 197-200.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Lawson CM, O'Donoghue HL, Reed WD: Mouse cytomegalovirus infection induces antibodies which cross-react with virus and cardiac myosin: a model for the study of molecular mimicry in the pathogenesis of viral myocarditis. Immunology. 1992, 75: 513-519.

    PubMed  CAS  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  7. Toyoda M, Galfayan K, Galera OA, Petrosian A, Czer LS, Jordan SC: Cytomegalovirus infection induces anti-endothelial cell antibodies in cardiac and renal allograft recipients. Transpl Immunol. 1997, 5: 104-111. 10.1016/S0966-3274(97)80050-0.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Toyoda M, Petrosian A, Jordan SC: Immunological characterization of anti-endothelial cell antibodies induced by cytomegalovirus infection. Transplantation. 1999, 15: 1311-1318. 10.1097/00007890-199911150-00016.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Ang CW, Jacobs BC, Brandenburg AH, Laman JD, van der Meche FG, Osterhaus AD, van Doorn PA: Cross-reactive antibodies against GM2 and CMV-infected fibroblasts in Guillain–Barre syndrome. Neurology. 2000, 54: 1453-1458.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Khalili-Shirazi A, Gregson N, Gray I, Rees J, Winer J, Hughes R: Antiganglioside antibodies in Guillain–Barre syndrome after a recent cytomegalovirus infection. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 1999, 66: 376-379.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  11. Rider JR, Ollier WE, Lock RJ, Brookes ST: Human cytomegalovirus infection and systemic lupus erythematosus. Clin Exp Rheumatol. 1997, 15: 405-409.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Ohlin M, Owman H, Rioux J, Newkirk M, Borrebaeck C: Restricted variable region gene usage and possible rheumatoid factor relationship among human monoclonal antibodies specific for the AD-1 epitope on cytomegalovirus glycoprotein B*. Mol Immunol. 1994, 31: 983-991. 10.1016/0161-5890(94)90093-0.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Curtis HA, Singh T, Newkirk MM: Recombinant cytomegalovirus glycoprotein gB (UL55) incudes an autoantibody response to the U1-70 kDa small nuclear riboprotein. Eur J Immunol. 1999, 29: 3643-3653. 10.1002/(SICI)1521-4141(199911)29:11<3643::AID-IMMU3643>3.0.CO;2-J.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Newkirk MM, van Venrooij WJ, Marshall GS: Autoimmune response to U1 small nuclear ribonucleoprotein (U1 snRNP) associated with cytomegalovirus infection. Arthritis Res. 2001, 3: 253-258. 10.1186/ar310.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  15. Adler SP, McVoy M: Detection of cytomegalovirus antibody by enzyme immunoassay and lack of evidence for an effect resulting from strain heterogeneity. J Clin Micro. 1986, 24: 870-872.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Hoffman RW, Rettenmaier LJ, Takeda Y, Hewett JE, Pettersson I, Nyman U, Luger AM, Sharp GC: Human autoantibodies against the 70-kd polypeptide of U1 small nuclear RNP are associated with HLA-DR4 among connective tissue disease patients. Arthritis Rheum. 1990, 33: 666-673.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Burdt MA, Hoffman RW, Deutscher SL, Wang GS, Johnson JC, Sharp GC: Long-term outcome in mixed connective tissue disease: longitudinal clinical and serologic findings. Arthritis Rheum. 1999, 42: 899-909. 10.1002/1529-0131(199905)42:5<899::AID-ANR8>3.0.CO;2-L.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Greidinger EL, Foecking MF, Ranatunga S, Hoffman RW: Apoptotic U1-70 kd is antigenically distinct from the intact form of the U1-70 kd molecule. Arthritis Rheum. 2002, 46: 1264-1269. 10.1002/art.10211.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. Greidinger EL, Casciola-Rosen L, Morris SM, Hoffman RW, Rosen A: Autoantibody recognition of distinctly modified forms of the U1-70-kD antigen is associated with different clinical disease manifestations. Arthritis Rheum. 2000, 43: 881-888. 10.1002/1529-0131(200004)43:4<881::AID-ANR20>3.0.CO;2-G.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Wang JB, Adler SP, Hempfling S, Burke RL, Duliege AM, Starr SE, Plotkin SA: Mucosal antibodies to human cytomegalovirus glycoprotein B occur following both natural infection and immunization with human cytomegalovirus vaccines. J Infect Dis. 1996, 174: 387-392.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  21. Norais N, Hall JA, Gross L, Tang D, Kaur S, Chamberlain SH, Burke RL, Marcus F: Evidence for a phosphorylation site in cytomegalovirus glycoprotein gB. J Virol. 1996, 70: 5716-5719.

    PubMed  CAS  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  22. Spaete RR, Saxena A, Scott PI, Song GJ, Probert WS, Britt WJ, Gibson W, Rasmussen L, Pachl C: Sequence requirements for proteolytic processing of glycoprotein B of human cytomegalovirus strain Towne. J Virol. 1990, 64: 2922-2931.

    PubMed  CAS  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  23. Singh RR, Malaviya AN, Kailash S, Varghese T, Singh H, Sun-daram KR: Antibodies to extractable nuclear antigens in connective tissue disorders in India: prevalence and clinical correlations. Asian Pac J AllergyImmunol. 1989, 7: 107-112.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  24. Azizah MR, Azila MN, Zulkifli MN, Norita TY: The prevalence of antinuclear, anti-dsDNA, anti-Sm and anti-RNP antibodies in a group of healthy blood donors. Asian Pac J Allergy Immunol. 1996, 14: 125-128.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  25. Hassfield W, Steiner G, Studnicka-Benke A, Skriner K, Graninger W, Fischer I, Smolen J: An immunologic link between rheumatoid arthritis, mixed connective tissue disease, and systemic lupus erythematosus. ArthritisRheum. 1995, 38: 777-785.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Arnett F, Hamilton R, Roebber M, Harley J, Reichlin M: Increased frequencies of Sm and nRNP autoantibodies in American blacks compared to whites with systemic lupus erythematosus. JRheumatol. 1998, 15: 1773-1776.

    Google Scholar 

  27. Piura B, Tauber E, Dror Y, Sarov B, Buskila D, Slor H, Shoenfeld Y: Antinuclear autoantibodies in healthy nonpregnant and pregnant women and their offspring. Am J Reprod Immunol. 1991, 26: 28-31.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  28. El-Roeiy A, Gleicher N, Isenberg D, Kennedy RC, Shoenfeld Y: A common anti-DNA idiotype and other autoantibodies in sera of offspring of mothers with systemic lupus erythematosus. Clin Exp Immunol. 1987, 68: 528-534.

    PubMed  CAS  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  29. Isenberg DA, Shoenfeld Y, Schwartz RS: Multiple serologic reactions and their relationship to clinical activity in systemic lupus erythematosus. Arthritis Rheum. 1984, 27: 132-138.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  30. Hoffman RW, Sharp GC, Deutscher SL: Analysis of anti-U1 RNA antibodies in patients with connective tissue disease. Association with HLA and clinical manifestations of disease. Arthritis Rheum. 1995, 38: 1837-1844.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  31. Fairweather D, Kaya Z, Shellam GR, Lawson CM, Rose NR: From infection to autoimmunity. J Autoimmun. 2001, 16: 175-186. 10.1006/jaut.2000.0492.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the technical assistance of Sue Hempfling and Brian Barnstein.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Stuart P Adler.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Marshall, B.C., McPherson, R.A., Greidinger, E. et al. Lack of autoantibody production associated with cytomegalovirus infection. Arthritis Res Ther 4, R6 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1186/ar429

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/ar429

Keywords