Induction of de novo autoimmune disease in normal mice upon repeated immunization with antigen.

There are many issues with animal models that represent human autoimmune disease or protocols to induce systemic autoimmunity, especially protocols to induce disease in normal mice not having a genetic disposition to autoimmunity. We describe here a novel and completely reproducible experimental technique that can induce systemic autoimmunity or systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in mice otherwise not prone to spontaneous autoimmune disease. This protocol involves the repeated immunization of mice with the same antigen. This rather simple technique enables us to perform exact and quantitative in vivo animal experiments with great accuracy.