title: Anti-cardiac ryanodine receptor antibodies in thymoma-associated myasthenia gravis.
abstract: Sera from myasthenia gravis (MG) patients with thymoma were examined in Western blot for the presence of antibodies to proteins in the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) of cardiac muscle. Fourteen of 30 MG thymoma sera had IgG antibodies to a protein with the same electrophoretic mobility as cardiac muscle ryanodine receptor (RyR). Anti-cardiac RyR antibodies were not detected in any of the 45 sera from MG patients without thymoma. The same 14 MG thymoma sera, but none of the others, bound to RyR from skeletal muscle as well. Neutralization experiments showed that the anti-RyR antibodies in MG patient cross-reacted with cardiac and skeletal muscle RyR. Since skeletal and cardiac muscle RyRs are antigenically different, our findings may indicate that autoantibodies to RyR in MG originate by sensitization to a peptide shared by cardiac and skeletal muscle RyR, rather than to the complete native RyR.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Gade Institute, University of Bergen, Norway.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mygland
authors.forename: O B
authors.initials: OB
authors.lastname: Tysnes
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Matre
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Aarli
authors.forename: N E
authors.initials: NE
authors.lastname: Gilhus
mesh_terms: D001323:Autoantibodies / Q000097:blood*; D015153:Blotting, Western; D015220:Calcium Channels / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D009124:Muscle Proteins / Q000276:immunology*; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000276:immunology; D009157:Myasthenia Gravis / Q000209:etiology / Q000276:immunology*; D009206:Myocardium / Q000276:immunology*; D019837:Ryanodine Receptor Calcium Release Channel; D013945:Thymoma / Q000150:complications / Q000276:immunology; D013953:Thymus Neoplasms / Q000150:complications / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D001323:Autoantibodies; D015220:Calcium Channels; D009124:Muscle Proteins; D019837:Ryanodine Receptor Calcium Release Channel