INDUCTORS OF AUTOIMMUNE REACTIONS IN TRIG EMINAL NEURALGIA PATIENTS

The antigenic determinants of proteins contained in normal nervous tis sue and some microorganisms were studied by the method of immunoblotti ng. Nervous tissue was found to contain antigens, common with some Myc obacterium tuberculosis antigens having molecular weights (MW) of 104, 90, 68, 40, 34, 28 kD and some antigens contained in staphylococcal a nd streptococcal proteins with MW of 274, 163, 63, 50 kD. In serum sam ples taken from trigeminal neuralgia patients autoantibodies to cross- reacting determinants of microbial and nerve proteins with MW of 84, 7 6, 66, 64, 44, 40, 38, 28 kD were detected. These autoantibodies were absent in the sera of healthy persons. The conclusion was made that th e autoantibodies under study might play a certain role in the pathogen esis of pangs in such patients.