Figure 1.

Method used to identify presence of anti-enteric neuronal antibodies in sera. (A) Structure of the anti-enteric neuronal antibodies. Serum was applied to isolated longitudinal muscle with attached myenteric plexus (ie, longitudinal muscle-myenteric plexus preparation) or to isolated submucosal plexus free of the mucosa and muscularis externa (ie, submucosal plexus preparation). (B) Anti-enteric neuronal antibodies (human IgG), if present in the serum, bind to antigenic molecules expressed by anti-enteric neuronal antibodies in neurons. Incubation with a fluorescently-tagged anti-human IgG antibody labels the neurons recognized by antibodies in the serum.