Expression of ciliary neurotrophic factor receptor in myasthenia gravis

In myasthenia gravis, high anti-nicotinic receptor (AChR) antibody titers a re not always associated with severity of the disease, suggesting the invol vement of other pathological effectors. We showed that ciliary neurotrophic factor receptor (CNTFR) gene expression was higher in muscle biopsy tissue from. severely affected MG patients regardless of anti-nAChR antibody tite r. This increase was also triggered in vitro by a seric factor from MG pati ents. CNTFR protein expression was decreased in muscles from seropositive M G patients only. Altogether, our data indicate that the alteration of CNTFR expression in so me MG patients could contribute to the severity of the disease in a subgrou p of patients. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.