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Thymic B lymphocyte clones from patients with myasthenia gravis secrete monoclonal striational autoantibodies reacting with myosin, alpha actinin, or actin. J Exp Med 1986 Oct 01;164(4):1043-59

Date

10/01/1986

Pubmed ID

3020150

Pubmed Central ID

PMC2188418

DOI

10.1084/jem.164.4.1043

Scopus ID

2-s2.0-0022517678 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site)   109 Citations

Abstract

Striational autoantibodies (StrAb), which react with elements of skeletal muscle cross-striations, occur frequently in patients with thymoma associated with myasthenia gravis (MG). Dissociated thymic lymphocytes from 22 of 72 MG patients secreted StrAb when cultured with PWM. A high yield of EBV-transformed B cell lines was established from thymus, thymoma, and peripheral blood of seven patients with MG, but clones secreting StrAb arose only from the three patients who had StrAb in their sera. The monoclonal StrAb bound to A bands or I bands in skeletal muscle of human, rat, and frog. One bound to mitochondria in addition to myofibrillar I bands. None bound to nuclei, smooth muscle, or gastric mucosal cells. In immunoblot analyses and ELISAs the monoclonal StrAb bound to muscle and nonmuscle isotypes of myosin, alpha actinin, and/or actin. All bound to contractile proteins common to thymus and muscle, and one selectively immunostained epithelial cells of the thymic medulla. From these antigenic specificities we suggest that StrAb might arise as an immune response directed against the cytoskeletal anchoring proteins associated with nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in thymic epithelial cells undergoing neoplastic transformation to thymoma.

Author List

Williams CL, Lennon VA

Author

Carol L. Williams PhD Professor in the Pharmacology and Toxicology department at Medical College of Wisconsin




MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold

Actinin
Actins
Adult
Aged
Animals
Antibodies, Monoclonal
Autoantibodies
B-Lymphocytes
Clone Cells
Female
Herpesvirus 4, Human
Humans
Immunoglobulin M
Male
Mice
Mice, Inbred Strains
Middle Aged
Muscles
Myasthenia Gravis
Myosins
Rats
Receptors, Cholinergic
Thymoma
Thymus Gland