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
10/01/1986Pubmed ID
3020150Pubmed Central ID
PMC2188418DOI
10.1084/jem.164.4.1043Scopus ID
2-s2.0-0022517678 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site) 109 CitationsAbstract
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 VAAuthor
Carol L. Williams PhD Professor in the Pharmacology and Toxicology department at Medical College of WisconsinMESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold
ActininActins
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