title: Anti-acetylcholine receptor antibody specificities in serum and in thymic cell culture supernatants from myasthenia gravis patients.
abstract: We investigated the role of the thymus in myasthenia gravis by comparing the antigenic specificities of anti-acetylcholine receptor antibodies (anti-AChR), defined by competition with mouse monoclonal antibodies that bind to five different regions on human muscle AChR, in thymic culture supernatants and in serum pre- and post-thymectomy. Anti-AChR specificities present in the serum were broadly unchanged in 16 non-thymoma and six thymoma patients 7-30 months after thymectomy compared with an initial sample, although total anti-AChR frequently fell. The fine specificities of the anti-AChR synthesized in vitro by cultured lymphocytes from the thymus of ten patients (without thymoma) correlated significantly with that of the anti-AChR in the serum at the same time. We conclude that AChR-specific B cells in the thymus are representative of the total AChR-specific repertoire, and that thymectomy does not selectively deplete particular B cell clones.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurological Science, Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine, London, England.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Heidenreich
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Vincent
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Willcox
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Newsom-Davis
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000906:Antibodies / Q000276:immunology*; D000918:Antibody Specificity; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008214:Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D008297:Male; D009157:Myasthenia Gravis; D011950:Receptors, Cholinergic / Q000276:immunology*; D013950:Thymus Gland / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D000906:Antibodies; D011950:Receptors, Cholinergic