Pathological importance of anti-G-protein coupled receptor autoantibodies

Anti-cardiac receptor autoantibodies have been studied intensively last 10 years. A growing evidence, both in vitro and in vivo and both clinical and experimental studies, have supported that these anti-cardiac receptor autoantibodies, mainly anti-beta1 adrenoceptor autoantibodies, play a very important pathophysiological role, at least partly, in the development of idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy. This concise review article will only summarize studies done in rabbits with consideration of other articles in this focused issue.