Antibodies Against the Adenosine Di-/Triphosphate Carrier Cross-react with the Ca Channel — Functional and Biochemical Data

Heart-reactive antibodies against cell surface and intracellular components have been described in myocarditis [1, 6, 12]. During recent years studies by our group have characterized the adenosine di-/triphosphate (ADP/ATP) carrier of the inner mitochondrial membrane as an autoantigen in myocarditis and dilated cardiomyopathy [14, 15, 18]. The ADP/ATP carrier is a highly specific transport system for the transfer of ATP to the cytosol with its energy-consuming processes and the return of ADP to the inner mitochondrial space for rephosphorylation [7]. Autoantibodies to the ADPI/ATP carrier were shown to be organ specific [15]. They inhibit the nucleotide transport not only in vitro [15, 18], but also in vivo [18, 20] (also Schultheiss et al., this volume).