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NEUROLOGY 1981;31:1198
© 1981 American Academy of Neurology

Polyclonal B-cell activity in myasthenia gravis

Arnold I. Levinson, Agnes Dziarski, Robert P. Lisak, Burton Zweiman, Anne R. Moskovitz, Talma Brenner and Oded Abramsky

Section of Allergy and Immunology (Drs. Levinson, Dziarski, Zweiman, and Moskovitz), University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, the Henry M. Watts, Jr., Muscular Dystrophy Association Neuromuscular Research Center, Department of Neurology (Drs. Lisak, Zweiman, and Moskovitz), University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and the Department of Neurology, (Drs. Brenner and Abramsky), Hebrew University, Hadassah Medical School, Jerusalem, Israel.

Using a protein A-reverse hemolytic plaque assay, we found that some patients with myasthenia gravis have increased numbers of circulating immunoglobulin secreting cells (IgSC). This pattern was not related to drug therapy, age, sex, duration of symptoms, thymectomy, or serum levels of AChR antibody, although elevated IgSC values tended to occur in patients with active symptoms. The responses of peripheral blood mononuclear cells to pokeweed mitogen were normal. These data suggest increased in vivo polyclonal B-cell activation in some myasthenic patients, although in vitro polyclonal B-cell activation is normal.

Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. Levinson, Section of Allergy and Immunology, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Room 515, Johnson Pavilion, 36th Street and Hamilton Walk, Philadelphia, PA 19104.

This investigation was supported in part by the Henry M. Watts, Jr., Muscular Dystrophy Association and American Cancer Society Grant No. IN 135.

Accepted for publication November 20, 1980.






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