Summary. Autoantibodies of Myasthenia gravis sera bind to an antigen belonging to the myosin complex of the sceletal muscle. These autoantibodies are organ specific but not species specific. Rabbits, immunized with the "myasthenic" antigen of human sceletal muscle fail to produce an autoantibody of the Myasthenia type, whereas rats do produce this autoantibody if immunized with rabbit "myasthenic" antigen.There is a striking difference :in the results of the Ouchterlony technique and indirect immunofluorescence technique, since immunofluorescence does not differentiate antibodies versus closely related antigens.Production of myasthenic symptoms by immunization with muscle antigens did not occur in any of these animals. Microscopic slides of various organs of these animals did not exhibit any of the typical myasthenic alterations.
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