title: Acetylcholine receptor-reactive T lymphocytes from healthy subjects and myasthenia gravis patients.
abstract: Peripheral blood lymphocytes from 23 of 114 (20%) myasthenia gravis (MG) patients showed positive T-cell proliferative responses to native acetylcholine receptor (AChR) purified from the electric fish Torpedo, compared with two of 25 (8%) healthy or other neurologic disease controls. Responsiveness appeared to fluctuate seasonally. Long-term T-cell lines and clones could be selected as readily from the two healthy responders as from the MG cases and showed similar culture behavior, CD4+ phenotype, and HLA class II restrictions. One clone from a control cross-reacted with recombinant human AChR alpha chain (r37-429A) and with the synthetic peptide 125-143(S-S) from its sequence. Both these human antigens stimulated primary proliferative responses at substantially higher frequencies (26 to 59%) than native xeno-AChR--in both patients and controls--demonstrating that truly autoreactive T cells are not inevitably deleted during normal T-cell development.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurological Science, Royal Free Hospital, London, UK.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Sommer
authors.forename: G C
authors.initials: GC
authors.lastname: Harcourt
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Willcox
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Beeson
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Newsom-Davis
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002455:Cell Division; D002460:Cell Line; D000939:Epitopes; D006680:HLA Antigens / Q000032:analysis; D006801:Humans; D009157:Myasthenia Gravis / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D010641:Phenotype; D011950:Receptors, Cholinergic / Q000378:metabolism*; D011994:Recombinant Proteins; D012016:Reference Values; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism*; D013997:Time Factors; D014101:Torpedo / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D000939:Epitopes; D006680:HLA Antigens; D011950:Receptors, Cholinergic; D011994:Recombinant Proteins