Milford chronicle., 1962-10-19
TUrneoot Antibody
Found In Some
Muscular Disorders

Mans natural j m m un ty
mechanism, his ability to produce
antibodies to oounteract invading
germs, is being investigated as a
possible cause of muscular dis
order.
Autoantibodies, su b tan e S
which are originally manufactured
by the body for protection b IL
turn against their host, have been
found to be associated with my
asthenia gravis, or fatigue of the
muscular system, four researchers
at the University of Buffalo School
of Medicine, Buffalo, N. Y, report
ed in the current Journal of the
American Medical Association.
The cause of myasthenia is not
known, but it is believed to result
from functional abnormality in
the connection between nerves and
muscles.
Previous investigators had found
a factor with specific affinities for
skeletal muscle in the blood of
patients with the disease, accord
ing to the Journal article.
The Buffalo workers-Ernest H.
Beutner, PhD., Ernest Witebsky,
MD, Dieter Ricken, Md, an d
Richard H. Adler, MD.-said they
found additional evidence that the
factor was an antibody and esItab
lished that it was an autoantibody.
There are actually two auto
antibodies that seem to come into
play, the authors said.
One antibody acts upon skeletal
and heart muscle, they said, while
the second type acts only on
Skeletal muscle. Earlier inveSti-
gators apparently found only the
latter type, they said. Final proof
of the existence of these two anti
bodies depends on further extern
sive experiments, they pointed out.
A small but increasing number
of autoantibodies with an affinity
| for certain organs are known to
occur in association with certain
diseases, the authors said. A o.
antibodies to heart muscle have
been found in cases of rheumatic
fever. they said.
Evidence of the presence of anti
body was drawn from a compari-
son of ten patients with my
| asthenia and thirty-two patients
with other muscular and nom
| muscular disorders, the research
ers said. Among the ten my
asthenia patients, tests for anti
body against skeletal muscle were
strongly positive in two, weakly
positive in three, doubtful in eight
and negative in two, they said.
Among the other thirty-two, they
said, no tests were positive, three
were doubtful and twenty-n n
were negative.
1t was established by several
techniques that both types of anti
bodies were directed against the
patients own tissues, they said. In
one technique, a blood sample
from a patient with myasthenia re-
acted to biopsy specimen from
her own shoulder muscle in the
same way it reacted to other hu-
man and monkey muscle speci-
mems, they said.
"The mere demonstration of cir
culating autoantibodies in spite of
exquisite specificity has never
been considered by us as sufficient
proof of the autoimmune cause of
disease" the. researchers said.
Additional evidence might be fur
nished by reproducing the disease
in experimental animals by active
immunization. :"
Even if it is assumed that my
asthenia has an autoimmune
cause, they added, the triggering
mechanism of the immunologic de-
rangement remains unknown.
The disease most often affects
the muscles of the eyes, face, neck,
throat, tongue, and lips although
other muscles may be affected
later. 1t causes a sleepy facial ex-
preston and abnormal sp C h,
Drug therapy provides sympto-
matte relief.