Circulating anti-glycolipid antibodies in patients with heart disease

Circulating anti-glycolipid antibodies (c-AGLAb) were detected in the sera of 52 patients with heart-disease and 12 normal controls (NC) using thin-layer chromatogram (TLC)-immunostaining. The study population consisted of 7 patients with angina pectoris (AP), 8 with acute myocardial infarction (AMI), 17 with old MI (OMI), 19 with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), and 1 with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). The indcidence of patients with c-AGLAb which reacted with glycolipids from human myocardium was 57.0% in AP, 25.0% in AMI, 29.0% in OMI, 26.3% in DCM, while that was not detected in N.C. This result suggests that the c-AGLAb were autoantibodies produced as a result of myocardial damage. By using silisic acid, and DEAE-Sepharose column chromatography with neuraminidase treatment, antigens which reacted with the c-AGLAb were found in both fractions of neutral glycolipids and gangliosides from human myocardium. On the other hand, c-AGLAb which reacted with these antibodies was higher in DCM, OMI, and AMI than in AP and NC, although the mechanism of the appearance of the antibodies under these pathological conditions is unclear. Further clinical evaluation of these c-AGLAb which readted with glycolipids of the human myocardium and of steer and/or sheep red blood cell membrane is necessary for the analysis of these heart disease.