Association of pretransplantation antiheart antibodies with clinical course after heart transplantation.

Abstract

Analysis of the pattern of banding of strong IgM antiheart antibody sera showed antiheart antibodies most frequently against myocardial proteins of 35, 42, 50, 60, 70, 110, 120, 150, 180, and 200 kDa. Several of these proteins were characterized by two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and Western blotting as tropomyosin (35 kDa), actin (42 kDa), heat shock protein 60 (60 kDa), and heat shock protein 70 (70 kDa). All strong antiheart antibody sera showed reactivity against a 200 kDa protein corresponding to myosin heavy chain.