Abstract
Twenty-five myasthenia gravis (MG) patients whose anti-acetylcholine receptor (anti-AChR) titres against denervated human leg AChR fell in the range of less than 0.1-2.0 nM were tested against AChR preparations from normal human leg muscle, and from human extra-ocular muscle, and the results compared with those of sera with titres greater than 2.0 nM. Seven sera failed to react appreciably with any of the AChR. Many of the remaining 18 low titre sera reacted better with normal leg and ocular AChR than with denervated AChR. In contrast, sera from patients with high anti-AChR titres generally reacted better with denervated, AChR, and as a group this was significantly different from the low titre patients. Sera reacting better with ocular AChR are not restricted to patients with purely ocular symptoms. The results indicate a subgroup of myasthenia gravis patients who have low titres, tend to be male and have relatively mild disease. The aetiology of the autoimmune disorder in this subgroup may differ from that in other MG patients.
Full text
PDF
Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- Dwyer D. S., Kearney J. F., Bradley R. J., Kemp G. E., Oh S. J. Interaction of human antibody and murine monoclonal antibody with muscle acetylcholine receptor. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 1981;377:143–157. doi: 10.1111/j.1749-6632.1981.tb33729.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Sumikawa K., Barnard E. A., Dolly J. O. Similarity of acetylcholine receptors of denervated, innervated and embryonic chicken muscles. 2. Subunit compositions. Eur J Biochem. 1982 Sep 1;126(3):473–479. doi: 10.1111/j.1432-1033.1982.tb06804.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Tindall R. S. Humoral immunity in myasthenia gravis: biochemical characterization of acquired antireceptor antibodies and clinical correlations. Ann Neurol. 1981 Nov;10(5):437–447. doi: 10.1002/ana.410100506. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Vincent A., Newsom-Davis J. Acetylcholine receptor antibody characteristics in myasthenia gravis. I. Patients with generalized myasthenia or disease restricted to ocular muscles. Clin Exp Immunol. 1982 Aug;49(2):257–265. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Vincent A., Newsom-Davis J. Acetylcholine receptor antibody characteristics in myasthenia gravis. II. Patients with penicillamine-induced myasthenia or idiopathic myasthenia of recent onset. Clin Exp Immunol. 1982 Aug;49(2):266–272. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Vincent A., Newsom-Davis J., Newton P., Beck N. Acetylcholine receptor antibody and clinical response to thymectomy in myasthenia gravis. Neurology. 1983 Oct;33(10):1276–1282. doi: 10.1212/wnl.33.10.1276. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Weinberg C. B., Hall Z. W. Antibodies from patients with myasthenia gravis recognize determinants unique to extrajunctional acetylcholine receptors. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1979 Jan;76(1):504–508. doi: 10.1073/pnas.76.1.504. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]