ANTI-M2 MUSCARINIC RECEPTOR AUTOANTIBODIES AND IDIOPATHIC DILATED CARDIOMYOPATHY

Idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy is an often fatal cause of heart fai lure and has been intensively studied over the last 50 years. One of t he main mechanisms for this disease is likely to be autoimmunity-media ted myocardial damage. So far, a variety of autoantibodies have been d etected against a number of putative cardiac autoantigens in the sera of patients with dilated cardiomyopathy and have thus received increas ed attention. This article will attempt to focus on clinical and exper imental studies of autoimmunity induced by the M2 muscarinic receptor as a putative autoantigen and their implications in idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy.