Figure 6.

AAV-Grn-treated Grn^−/− mice produce anti-progranulin antibodies and both AAV-GFP-treated wild-type and Grn^−/− mice produce anti-GFP antibodies. a, b, Progranulin autoantibodies were detected by probing blots of recombinant mouse progranulin with plasma from AAV-Grn-treated Grn^−/− mice, but not plasma from AAV-GFP-treated Grn^−/− mice or AAV-Grn-treated wild-type mice (n = 11 AAV-Grn-treated wild-type, 7 AAV-GFP-treated Grn^−/− mice, and 9 AAV-Grn-treated Grn^−/− mice, χ²: df 2,22.74, p < 0.0001). c, In contrast, both wild-type and Grn^−/− mice treated with AAV-GFP demonstrated circulating anti-GFP antibodies. d, AAV-Grn-treated Grn^−/− mice generated more antibodies against progranulin than AAV-GFP-treated wild-type or Grn^−/− mice generated against GFP because the immunoreactivity of AAV-Grn-treated Grn^−/− plasma persisted at greater dilutions than either of the AAV-GFP-treated groups. MW, Molecular weight marker; mGrn, recombinant mouse progranulin. ****p < 0.0001, χ² test.