Resumen:
levated titers of serum antibodies against GM1 ganglioside are associated with avariety of autoimmune neuropathies. Much evidence indicates these autoantibodiesplay a primary role in the disease processes, but the mechanism for theirappearance is unclear. We studied the fine specificity of anti-GM1 antibodies of theIgG isotype present in sera from patients with Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS), usingthin-layer chromatogram-immunostaining of GM1, asialo-GM1 (GA1), GD1b andGM1-derivatives with small modifications on the oligosaccharide moiety. We wereable to distinguish populations of antibodies with different fine specificity.Remarkably, individual patients presented only one or two of them, and differentpatients had different populations. This restriction in the variability of antibodypopulations suggests that the appearance of the anti-GM1 antibodies is a randomprocess involving restricted populations of lymphocytes. With the origin of diseaseassociatedanti-GM1 antibodies as a context,