TY - JOUR KW - Autoantibodies KW - Autoantigens KW - Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel KW - Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay KW - Humans KW - Immunoblotting KW - Leprosy, lepromatous KW - Liver Cirrhosis, Biliary KW - Mitochondria, Liver KW - Molecular Weight KW - Pyruvate Dehydrogenase Complex AU - Gilburd B AU - Ziporen L AU - Zharhary D AU - Blank M AU - Zurgil N AU - Scheinberg M A AU - Guedes L H AU - Gershwin M E AU - Shoenfeld Y AB -

Sera from 69 patients with leprosy but without liver involvement were assayed for the presence of mitochondrial pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH)-specific autoantibodies by enzyme-linked immunoabsorbent assay (ELISA), immunoblotting using PDH as an antigen and by enzymatic inhibition test. Twenty-seven of the leprosy serum samples (39.1%) were found to react with PDH by ELISA. However, unlike sera from primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) patients, none of these were able to inhibit the PDH enzymatic activity. By immunoblotting, it was found that only 2 of the 27 positive sera recognized the 74-kD protein of the PDH complex, which is recognized by sera of most PBC patients. The antimitochondrial antibodies in lepra most probably recognize different epitopes than those in PBC. These findings may indicate that anti-PDH autoantibodies in patients with leprosy may arise by polyclonal B cell stimulation and may represent natural anti-PDH autoantibodies.

BT - Journal of clinical immunology C1 - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8132733?dopt=Abstract DA - 1994 Jan DO - 10.1007/bf01541171 IS - 1 J2 - J. Clin. Immunol. LA - eng N2 -

Sera from 69 patients with leprosy but without liver involvement were assayed for the presence of mitochondrial pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH)-specific autoantibodies by enzyme-linked immunoabsorbent assay (ELISA), immunoblotting using PDH as an antigen and by enzymatic inhibition test. Twenty-seven of the leprosy serum samples (39.1%) were found to react with PDH by ELISA. However, unlike sera from primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) patients, none of these were able to inhibit the PDH enzymatic activity. By immunoblotting, it was found that only 2 of the 27 positive sera recognized the 74-kD protein of the PDH complex, which is recognized by sera of most PBC patients. The antimitochondrial antibodies in lepra most probably recognize different epitopes than those in PBC. These findings may indicate that anti-PDH autoantibodies in patients with leprosy may arise by polyclonal B cell stimulation and may represent natural anti-PDH autoantibodies.

PY - 1994 SP - 14 EP - 9 T2 - Journal of clinical immunology TI - Antimitochondrial (pyruvate dehydrogenase) antibodies in leprosy. VL - 14 SN - 0271-9142 ER -