ANTI-PURKINJE CELLS ANTIBODIES IN 2 CASES OF PARANEOPLASTIC CEREBELLAR DEGENERATION

The serum and CSF of two women with a severe subacute pancerebellar sy ndrome contained high titers of antibodies directed against antigens p resent in the perikaryon of Purkinje cells. In Western blots performed on human Purkinje cells extracts these antibodies reacted with two gr oups of proteins the molecular weights of which were estimated to 34-3 8 and 62 kilodaltons (anti-Yo antibodies). Complementary investigation s revealed a tubar adenocarcinoma in the first case, an ovarian carcin oma in the second. The tubar tumoral cells also contained the protein of the highest molecular weight. Compared to the serum, the CSF contai ned a higher proportion of anti-Yo antibodies per mg IgG, and a fracti on of the latter was likely synthesized intrathecally. These antibodie s may be involved in the almost total disappearance of the Purkinje ce lls, as observed at autopsy of both cases.