Presence of autoantibodies in the sera of Ménière's disease

Abstract

We examined the sera of patients with Ménière's disease for the presence of antibodies against eight inner ear antigens by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). One hundred eight patients with Ménière's disease and 28 control subjects were studied. The antibodies against chicken type II collagen, bovine type 11 collagen, the cyanogen bromide cleaved peptide 11 (CB11) of each, types IX and XI collagens, C-Raf-1, and β-tubulin were measured by ELISA. The sensitivity of each antigen was 37% and 60% individually and was 91% when all eight inner ear antigens were combined. These results showed that 91% of Ménière's disease sera have antibody activities to one or more of these inner ear antigens. The results suggest that performing ELISA for these eight inner ear antigens was useful as a diagnostic tool for Ménière's disease. Further study is required to elucidate the role of these antigens in the pathogenesis of Ménière's disease, which might eventually result in better therapy.