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Autoantibodies to acetylcholine receptor in myasthenia gravis

Light chains

Autoimmunity Research Unit (Drs. Knight, Laing, and Adams) and the Department of Physiology (Dr. Bray), Otago Medical School, Dunedin, New Zealand; and the Department of Immunology (Dr. Ling), University of Birmingham Medical School. Birmingham B15 2TJ, UK.

We studied the light chain type of autoantibodies to acetylcholine receptor (AChR) by affinity chromatography with monoclonal anti- and anti- antibodies. The autoantibodies in four of eight myasthénie patients were of a single light chain type; the others comprised both types. In Graves' disease and cold-reactive hemolytic anemia, the pathogenic autoantibodies are confined to a single light chain type in individual patients, and in other diseases, doubtfully pathogenic autoantibodies are invariably mixtures of both light chain types. AChR antibodies may comprise both pathogenic and nonpathogenic types of autoantibody.

Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. Knight. Section on Brain Biochemistry. Clinical Neuroscience Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, Building 10. Room 3N256, 9000 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20892.

Supported in part by a grant to Dr. Bray from the New Zealand Neurological Foundation.

Accepted for publication March 5, 1986.