Sphingolipid Antibodies in Sera of Animals and Patients with Central Nervous System Lesions.

Abstract

Experiments were undertaken to determine if sera from animals and patients with various central nervous system lesions contained antibodies to gangliosides and asialogangliosides, gangliosides from which the terminal N-acetylneuraminic acid residues had been removed. Normal sera did not contain antibodies against these materials, but animals and patients with viral encephalitis having clinical evidence of brain damage showed the presence of anti-asialoganglioside antibodies in approximately 50% of the sera tested. Eight sera from 42 cases of multiple sclerosis showed evidence of anti-ganglioside antibodies. All of the patients with positive sera were homozygous with respect to the hr'' (c) blood group antigen, although not all of the sera of the multiple sclerosis patients with the hr'' (c) antigen contained anti-ganglioside antibodies.