We have previously demonstrated that the introduction of the bm12 mutation into NZB mice results in animals that spontaneously produce high titer IgG autoantibodies to dsDNA. The observation that NZB.H-2bm12 develop lupus although NZB.H-2b control mice do not, provides a unique system to study the role of Th cells in the production of antibodies to dsDNA. We have isolated, in the absence of a known stimulating autoantigen, a series of seven autoreactive T cell clones that provide help in vitro for the production of IgG anti-dsDNA antibodies by syngeneic B cells. The data on these seven cloned T cell lines was compared to two cloned T cell lines specific for keyhole limpet hemocyanin. The seven cloned T cell lines, coined clones 19D, 23G, 410F, 410H, C1, C15, and C52 all show significant help in vitro for production of IgM and IgG antibodies to ssDNA and dsDNA; antibody levels increased 7- to 30-fold compared to cultures without T cells. Clones C1, C15, and C52 were furthered studied and were shown to provide help for IgM antihistone and anti-OVA responses but provided significantly less help for IgG antibodies. In contrast, keyhole limpet hemocyanin-specific cloned T cell lines TK2 and TK5 provided help for IgM antibodies to ssDNA, dsDNA, and histone, but failed to significantly increase IgG antibodies to ssDNA, dsDNA, or histone. The cloned T cell lines were restricted to H-2bm12 and proliferated only in response to APC from NZB.H-2bm12 and B6.C-H-2bm12 but not NZB.H-2b or NZB.H-2d mice; their in vitro helper activity was inhibited by antibodies to class II. All cloned T cell lines expressed Thy-1, CD5, and TCR-alpha/beta. Three of the seven clones used TCR-V beta 4. However, the V beta expression of the four remaining autoreactive T cell clones could not be determined. All of the autoreactive cloned T cell lines produce significant IL-4 but no detectable IL-2 or IFN-gamma. We believe that HPLC-purified peptides eluted from I-Abm12 molecules from APC can potentially provide insight on the putative autoantigen.