Reduced thymic expression of ErbB receptors without auto-antibodies against synaptic ErbB in myasthenia gravis |
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| Authors: | Vrolix Kathleen Niks Erik H Le Panse Rozen van Ostaijen-Ten Dam Monique M Muris Anne-Hilde Jol-van der Zijde Cornelia M van Tol Maarten J D Losen Mario Molenaar Peter C van Zoelen Everardus J J Berrih-Aknin Sonia De Baets Marc H Verschuuren Jan J G M Martínez-Martínez Pilar |
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| Affiliation: | Department of Neuroscience, School of Mental Health and Neuroscience, Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, Maastricht University, Universiteitssingel 50, P.O. Box?616, 6200 MD Maastricht, The Netherlands. |
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| Abstract: | In myasthenia gravis (MG), the neuromuscular transmission is impaired mainly by auto-antibodies against the acetylcholine receptor (AChR) or MuSK. In about 5% of the MG patients, however, the auto-antigen is still unknown. We investigated whether these idiopathic MG patients (iMG) have auto-antibodies against ErbB proteins, which influence the AChR density at the NMJ. Our results show reduced mRNA expression levels of ErbB4 in thymus tissue of iMG patients compared to AChR-MG and non-MG patients, but we could not detect anti-ErbB antibodies in sera of iMG patients. Therefore, our results do not support a role for ErbB receptors as auto-antigens in iMG patients. |
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