Antinuclear antibodies in juvenile myoclonic epilepsy

Abstract

Juvenile myoclonic epilepsy (JME) is a prototype for idiopathic generalized epilepsy syndrome, which is usually associated with complex inheritance. To delineate if immune mechanisms might also be participating in JME, we screened the sera of 19 JME and 21 healthy control patients for anti-neuronal antibodies using immunohistochemistry and Western blot techniques. JME patients' sera showed relatively but not significantly increased antinuclear/nucleolar antibody incidence and multiple Western blot bands as compared to healthy controls, suggesting humoral immune mechanisms might be participating in JME pathogenesis.