Evidence that antisulfatide autoantibodies from rats experimentally infected with Trypanosoma cruzi bind to homologous neural tissue

Earlier studies in Trypanosoma cruzi-infected rats revealed an increased antibody activity against sulfatide, a specific constituent of both myelin sheaths of peripheral nerves and T. cruzi epimastigotes. To investigate further the characteristics of such anti-sulfatide antibodies, we analyzed their IgG isotypes as well as their ability to bind to homologous neural host structures. Antisulfatide IgG-enriched fractions were obtained from rats acutely infected with T. cruzi. Immunoglobulin isotypes were determined by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method to show that IgG2a and, more significantly, IgG2b were the predominant isotypes of antisulfatide autoantibodies. Further immunofluorescence studies carried out in coronal sections of the rat forebrain revealed, in turn, that antisulfatide antibodies were capable of reacting with homologous neural tissues. Specific binding of these rat autoantibodies to sulfocerebroside on cell surfaces in vivo may in theory play some detrimental role, given the reported ability of rat IgG2b to fix complement or to mediate antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity reactions.