Anti-spectrin in sera containing smooth muscle autoantibodies from patients with chronic active hepatitis

Sera from patients with chronic active hepatitis containing anti-smooth muscle autoantibodies (SMA) react against rabbit muscle actin as well as human red cell spectrin. These anti-spectrin antibodies recognize the same antigen as rabbit anti-human spectrin antibodies and are not involved in the staining pattern given by SMA-containing sera tested with smooth muscle sections. These anti-spectrin antibodies probably recognize an antigenic structure common to both spectrin and another as yet undetermined molecule (which however is not likely to be myosin).