Presentation of endogenous acetylcholine receptor epitope by an MHC class II-transfected human muscle cell line to a specific CD4 T cell clone from a myasthenia gravis patient

Muscle or thymic myoid cells, if induced to express MHC class II in addition to endogenous acetylcholine receptor (AChR), might present epitopes derived from the AChR to specific CD4⁺ T cells. These T cells could in turn initiate or maintain the anti-AChR response that is responsible for AChR loss in myasthenia gravis (MG). We transfected the AChR⁺ TE671 (rhabdyyosarcomyosarcoma) cells with HLA-DR4 and co-cultured them with the DR4-restricted, CD4⁺ T cell clone (PM-A1; raised from a hyperplastic thymus of an MG patient and previously shown to recognise all forms of the AChR that contain the sequence α144–156). Significant T cell activation, demonstrated both by ³H-thymidine incorporation and by lysis of the TE671 cells, was found in the presence of added α144–156 and, more importantly, in the absence of exogenous antigen. These results show that MHC class II-expressing muscle or other AChR-expressing cells could present endogenous AChR to pathogenic T cells. This process may be important in the aetiology of MG.