Antineural autoantibodies in patients with paraneoplastic cerebellar degeneration.

We studied serum autoantibodies from six patients with paraneoplastic cerebellar degeneration using rat brains. Immunohistochemically, serum samples from four of six patients with uterine or ovarian tumors showed a similar staining pattern, labeling Purkinje cells and various other neurons distributed throughout the brain and spinal cord. The immunoblot study showed that these serum samples recognized the common 52-kd band. Serum from a patient with duct carcinoma of the breast reacted with the 46-kd band with a similar but weaker immunohistochemical reactivity. Serum from another patient with small-cell carcinoma of the lung in whom paraneoplastic cerebellar degeneration and Eaton-Lambert myasthenic syndrome developed recognized the 40-kd and 38-kd bands with a different immunostaining pattern. Autoantibodies in patients with paraneoplastic cerebellar degeneration are directed to a variety of neuronal antigens that may differ from patient to patient.