ANTIBODY-MEDIATED AUTOIMMUNE MYOCARDITIS DEPENDS ON GENETICALLY-DETERMINED TARGET ORGAN SENSITIVITY

Injury to cardiac myocytes often leads to the production of anti-myosi n antibodies. While these antibodies are a marker of myocardial injury , their contribution to pathogenesis in diseases such as autoimmune my ocarditis or rheumatic fever is much less clear. We demonstrate in thi s report that monoclonal anti-myosin antibodies can mediate myocarditi s in a susceptible mouse strain. Additionally, we show disease suscept ibility depends on the presence of myosin or a myosin-like molecule in cardiac extracellular matrix. This study demonstrates that susceptibi lity to autoimmune heart disease depends not only on the activation of self-reactive lymphocytes but also on genetically determined target o rgan sensitivity to autoantibodies.