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Titin antibody positive myasthenia gravis patients have a cellular immune response against the main immunogenic region of titin
Author(s) -
Skeie G. O.,
Aarli J. A.,
Matre R.,
Freiburg A.,
Gilhus N. E.
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
european journal of neurology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.881
H-Index - 124
eISSN - 1468-1331
pISSN - 1351-5101
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-1331.1997.tb00318.x
Subject(s) - titin , myasthenia gravis , medicine , antibody , stimulation , immunology , immune system , endocrinology , myocyte , sarcomere
Some myasthenia gravis (MG) patients have antibodies against non‐acetylcholine receptor (AChR) epitopes of skeletal muscle including titin. Peripheral blood lymphocytes from 11 MG patients and 13 blood‐donors were tested for lymphocyte proliferation after stimulation with the titin peptide MGT‐30, which represents the main immunogenic region. Four out of seven titin antibody positive patients had significant stimulation defined as a stimulation index (SI) above 2. Neither of the four titin antibody negative patients nor the 13 blood‐donors had SI above 2 ( p = 0.001). Mean SI was significantly higher for T‐cells from titin antibody positive MG patients, SI = 2.2 ± 0.8, compared to titin antibody negative patients, SI = 0.9 ± 0.2 ( p = 0.01), and blood‐donors, SI = 0.8 ±0.3 ( p > 0.0005). After MGT‐30 stimulation, IL‐4 was detected in the blood lymphocyte culture supernatant from four of the five MG patients examined, but from none of the eight blood‐donors. Thus, MG patients with anti‐titin antibodies have a T‐cell mediated immune reaction against titin.