Autoimmune T lymphocytes in myasthenia gravis. Determination of target epitopes using T lines and recombinant products of the mouse nicotinic acetylcholine receptor gene.

A Melms; S Chrestel; B C Schalke; H Wekerle; A Mauron; M Ballivet; T Barkas

doi:10.1172/JCI113958

Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Clinical Research Unit for Multiple Sclerosis, Würzburg, Federal Republic of Germany.

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Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Clinical Research Unit for Multiple Sclerosis, Würzburg, Federal Republic of Germany.

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Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Clinical Research Unit for Multiple Sclerosis, Würzburg, Federal Republic of Germany.

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Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Clinical Research Unit for Multiple Sclerosis, Würzburg, Federal Republic of Germany.

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Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Clinical Research Unit for Multiple Sclerosis, Würzburg, Federal Republic of Germany.

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Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Clinical Research Unit for Multiple Sclerosis, Würzburg, Federal Republic of Germany.

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Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Clinical Research Unit for Multiple Sclerosis, Würzburg, Federal Republic of Germany.

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Published in Volume 83, Issue 3 on March 1, 1989
J Clin Invest. 1989;83(3):785–790. https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI113958.
© 1989 The American Society for Clinical Investigation

Published March 1, 1989 - Version history

Oligoclonal and cloned T lines from peripheral blood or thymuses of patients with myasthenia gravis (MG) were selected for reactivity against nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (AChR) from Torpedo california, or against a recombinant fusion peptide, X4, representing the extracellular portion of the mouse AChR alpha-chain. All cell lines expressed the CD4 membrane phenotype, and their antigen reactivity was blocked by antibodies against monomorphic HLA DR/DP determinants. Using a panel of fusion proteins of different, overlapping mouse AChR alpha-chain sequences, a major T cell epitope was localized between amino acid positions 85 and 142. This determinant was distinct from the humoral main immunogenic region, which has been identified on the sequence 61-76. The response pattern of uncloned T lines from three patients with different HLA haplotypes suggests, however, that in any one MG patient T lymphocytes may recognize more than one autoantigenic epitope on the AChR alpha-chain, and that the T lymphocyte response profiles vary among individual patients.

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