1. Myasthenia Gravis: Passive Transfer from Man to Mouse
- Author
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Ing Kao, Klaus V. Toyka, Alan Pestronk, and Daniel B. Brachman
- Subjects
Adult ,Male ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Adolescent ,Neuromuscular Junction ,Action Potentials ,Immunoglobulins ,Mice ,Internal medicine ,Myasthenia Gravis ,medicine ,Animals ,Humans ,Receptors, Cholinergic ,Repetitive nerve stimulation ,Receptor ,Autoantibodies ,Acetylcholine receptor ,Binding Sites ,Multidisciplinary ,biology ,Chemistry ,Immunization, Passive ,Middle Aged ,medicine.disease ,Acetylcholine ,Myasthenia gravis ,Neostigmine ,Transplantation ,Endocrinology ,Immunoglobulin G ,biology.protein ,Cholinergic ,Female ,Antibody ,medicine.drug - Abstract
Daily injections into mice of an ammonium sulfate-precipitated immunoglobulin fraction of serum from patients with myasthenia gravis were carried out for up to 14 days. The mice showed reduced amplitudes of miniature endplate potentials and reduced numbers of acetylcholine receptors at the neuromuscular junctions. Some mice showed typical decremental responses on repetitive nerve stimulation, with reversal by neostigmine. This represents the first evidence of a circulating factor in the serum of patients with myasthenia gravis which on passive transfer reproduces features of the disease in experimental animals.
- Published
- 1975
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