An Attempt to Induce “Graves' Disease of the Gonads” by Immunizing Mice with the Luteinizing Hormone Receptor Provides Insight into Breaking Tolerance to Self-Antigens

Abstract

Gonadotropin receptors, unlike the thyrotropin receptor (TSHR), are not cleaved into disulfide-linked A- and B-subunits, nor do they shed A-subunits. Heavily glycosylated TSHR A-subunits initiate or amplify responses leading to stimulating TSHR-autoantibodies and Graves' hyperthyroidism. To investigate the possibility that mice immunized with luteinizing hormone receptor (LHR) would develop functional antibodies, we constructed adenoviruses expressing the rat-LH holoreceptor (LHR-Ad) and an LHR A-subunit equivalent (LHR-289-Ad). Female BALB/c mice were immunized with high doses (10(11) particles) of LHR-Ad, LHR-289-Ad, or control (Con)-Ad. Sera were tested using LHR-expressing eukaryotic cells for antibody binding by flow cytometry and for bioactivity by measuring cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) stimulation. Elevated serum binding to LHR cells in some LHR-Ad and LHR-289-Ad immunized mice was not specific for LHR-expressing cells. Moreover, sera lacked bioactivity, consistent with unchanged serum estradiol and ovary histology. The difference between rat and mouse LHR-ectodomains is relatively small (3% at the amino-acid level). In contrast, despite amino-acid identity, immunization of mice with adenovirus expressing membrane-bound mouse thyroid peroxidase (TPO), but not soluble mouse TPO ectodomain, elicited strong TPO-specific antibodies. Our investigations provide insight into antibody responses to self-antigens. First, antibodies are induced to large self-antigens like mouse-TPO when membrane bound. Second, lesser amino acid homology between the immunogen and mouse protein (91% vs. 97% for the human-TSHR and rat-LHR, respectively) favors antibody induction. Finally, from previous studies demonstrating the immunogenicity of the highly glycosylated human TSHR A-subunit versus our present data for the nonimmunogenic less glycosylated rat LHR, we suggest that the extent of glycosylation contributes to breaking self-tolerance.