Sera from familial dysautonomia patients are shown to contain high levels of antibodies to human serum albumin (HSA). The individual levels of anti-HSA antibodies correlate significantly with the levels of antibodies to bovine serum albumin and lactalbumin. These results and the findings that the anti-HSA level declines exponentially with age indicate that anti-HSA antibodies maybe induced by aspiration of bovine milk antigens in infancy. The titer of the anti-HSA autoantibodies presently described (> 1:10,000) is much higher than those found in other diseases and may contribute to the pathological changes in familial dysautonomia.
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