Detection of autophagy in MRL/lpr mice with systemic lupus erythematosus symptoms

SHEN Jiamin; WU Gengen; LIANG Tao

doi:10.13431/j.cnki.immunol.j.20170152

Abstract：This study was performed to study the autophagy level of MRL/lpr mice with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) symptoms.16-week-old female MRL/lpr mice and C57BL/6 mice were subjected to detection of organ coefficient.Serum anti-ds-DNA and ANA levels were detected by ELISA,while lymph nodes and kidneys were examined by HE staining,to confirm the onset of SLE in mice.Then the spleens of mice with SLE were dissected to detect the levels of ATG5,Beclin1,p62 and LC3 Ⅱ / Ⅰ by Western blotting;qPCR was used to test the expression of autophagy-related genes Beclin-1,ATG5,Atgl2,and LC3B mRNA;Flow cytometry was used to detect the ratio of B cells and plasma cells in the spleen of both groups.Data showed that in 16-week-old MRL/lpr mice,spleen and lymph node organ coefficient and the serum levels of autoantibodies were significantly increased,and lymph nodes and kidneys showed a certain degree of pathological changes.At the same time,the expression of Beclin-1,ATG5 and LC3Ⅱ/Ⅰ in MRL/lpr mice were higher than those in C57BL/6 mice,and the expression of P62 was significantly lower than that of C57BL/6 mice.The expression of autophagy-related gene ATG5 mRNA was also significantly increased in MRL/lpr mice.In addition,the number of B cells in the spleen of MRL/lpr mice was decreased compared with C57BL/6 mice.However,the number of antibody-secreting plasma cells was significantly increased.Taken together,16-week-old MRL/lpr mice have been showing lupus-like symptoms,and the autophagy levels are elevated abnormally,which may correlated with theincrease of antibody-seereting plasma cells in spleen.