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    Neurology. 1993 Aug;43(8):1581-5.

    Titin antibodies in myasthenia gravis: identification of a major immunogenic region of titin.

    Gautel M, Lakey A, Barlow DP, Holmes Z, Scales S, Leonard K, Labeit S, Mygland A, Gilhus NE, Aarli JA.

    European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Heidelberg, Germany.

    Approximately 15% of patients with myasthenia gravis (MG) have thymus neoplasia. These MG with thymoma (MGT) patients show autoantibodies to striated muscle as well as autoantibodies to acetylcholine receptor. To characterize these thymoma-associated muscle antigens, we cloned a number of immunopositive cDNAs by immunoscreening muscle cDNA libraries with sera from MGT patients. Analysis of the isolated cDNAs show that all share a common sequence encoding a distinct region of the titin gene. We expressed this main immunogenic region (MIR) of titin in Escherichia coli, and determined autoantibody serum titers directed against the obtained recombinant antigen in a variety of patients. We could detect titin MIR autoantibodies in 97% of sera from MGT patients but not in control sera from healthy blood donors. Therefore, expressed titin from the MIR of the molecule is a sensitive marker antigen for evaluating the presence of thymoma in MG.

    PMID: 8351016 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

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