DNASE1 and Autoimmunity: Therefore, to study the role of DNase I in the development of spontaneous autoimmunity, we inter-crossed the DNase transgenic mice on the C57BL/6 genetic background with Apcs-/- (backcrossed onto C57BL/6 for 10 generations) mice and generated the following cohorts: wt.DNase I, ash.DNase I, wt.DNase I.Apcs-/-, ash.DNase I.Apcs-/-, C57BL/6 and Apcs-/-.