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

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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.

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