Characterization of anti-acetylcholine receptor (AChR) antibodies from mice differing in susceptibility for experimental autoimmune myasthenia gravis (EAMG)

Abstract

SUMMARY In the murine model for EAMG we investigated the relation between disease susceptibility and fine specificity of anti-AChR antibodies obtained from high susceptible C57BI/6 and low susceptible BALB/c mice after immunization with Torpedo acetylcholinc receptor (tAChR). Anti-AChR MoAbs with fine specificity for the main immunogenic region (MIR), the α-bungarotoxin (α-BT)/ acetylcholine binding sites and other extra- and intracellular epitopes were isolated from both mouse strains. In total, nine out of 38 MoAbs obtained from C57BI/6 mice were directed against extracellular epitopes on mouse AChR in contrast to only one out of 27 MoAbs from BALB/c mice. A difference in antibody repertoire may underlie the difference in pathogenic response observed between these mouse strains. These results indicate that strain-specific differences in disease susceptibility in murine EAMG may be related to differences in the available repertoire of potential pathogenic antibodies.