Nuclease deficiencies promote end-stage lupus nephritis but not nephritogenic autoimmunity in (NZB × NZW) F1 mice.

New information has profoundly improved our insight into the processes that account for lupus nephritis. This review summarizes the data proving that secondary necrotic chromatin fragments are generated and retained in kidneys at time-points when the major renal nuclease Dnase-1 is selectively and severely downregulated. Second, we discuss data, which may indicate that nuclease deficiencies are not associated with autoimmunity to chromatin. Secondary to downregulation of renal Dnase-1, large chromatin fragment-immunoglobulin G complexes are accumulated in glomerular basement membranes of patients producing anti-chromatin autoantibodies. Exposure of chromatin in situ in glomeruli is the factor that renders anti-chromatin (anti-dsDNA and anti-nucleosome) antibodies nephritogenic. Without exposed chromatin, they circulate as non-pathogenic antibodies. This shows that acquired loss of renal Dnase-1 enzyme activity is a dominant event responsible for the progression of lupus nephritis into end-stage disease. Before the loss of Dnase-1, lupus-prone (NZB × NZW) F1 mice develop mild or silent nephritis with mesangial immune complex deposits, which correlates solely with onset of anti-dsDNA antibody production. The principal cellular and molecular requirements needed to produce these autoantibodies have been explained experimentally, but the mechanism(s) accounting for them in vivo in context of lupus nephritis have not yet been determined. However, published data show that defects in nucleases operational in apoptotic or necrotic cell death are not associated with the induction of nephritogenic anti-dsDNA autoantibodies. The data discussed in this study explain how an unusual exposure of chromatin may be a central factor in the evolution of lupus nephritis in (NZB x NZW) F1 mice, but not in promoting nephritogenic chromatin-specific autoimmunity.