SERUM ANTIBODIES TO PURKINJE-CELLS AND DORSAL-ROOT GANGLIA NEURONS INSENSORY NEURONOPATHY WITHOUT MALIGNANCY

Anti-Purkinje cell antibodies (APCA), believed to be markers of parane oplastic cerebellar degeneration in females, have been identified in t he serum of 3 men with subacute sensory neuronopathies and no evidence of tumors 5 years after the onset of the neurological signs. By indir ect immunohistochemistry on sections of rat cerebellum and dorsal root ganglia, the patients' IgG bound to the cytoplasms of both Purkinje c ells and dorsal root ganglia neurons. By western blot analysis on whol e human cerebellum and whole human dorsal root ganglia homogenates, th e IgG from 2 patients bound to a 62-kd protein in both homogenates and the IgG from 1 patient bound to a 110-kd protein in the cerebellum ho mogenate only. Yo autoantibody test was negative in all patients. Our study provides evidence that non-anti-Yo APCA may be associated with s ubacute sensory neuronopathies and are not necessarily markers of an u nderlying tumor. The previously described anti-Yo APCA has only occurr ed in females with cancer.