In vitro production of anti-neutrophilocyte-cytoplasm-antibodies (ANCA) by Epstein-Barr virus-transformed B-cell lines in Wegener's granulomatosis.

The frequent detection of anti-neutrophilocyte-cytoplasm-antibodies (ANCA) in patients with Wegener's granulomatosis (WG) led to the supposition that this disease might be of autoimmune nature. For some authors assume that Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection of human B-lymphocytes besides polyclonal activation could reveal the cryptic immune status against different autoantigens in patients with autoimmune diseases we investigated EBV-transformed B-lymphocytes from patients with Sjögren's syndrome, mixed connective tissue disease, WG and healthy blood donors. Two stable B-cell lines (Ho3, We1) could be established. Inhibition experiments showed that antibodies produced by transformed B-lymph…