Catalytic domain of PDC-E2 contains epitopes recognized by antimitochondrial antibodies in primary biliary cirrhosis

Figure 2 Box plots showing the reactivity of sera from 95 primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) patients (grey bars) and 22 blood donors (white bars) with 33 overlapping peptides spanning the whole PDC-E2 sequence. IgG antibody reactivities. A: Peptide 1-16; B: Peptide 17-33; IgM antibody reactivities. C: Peptide 1-16; D: Peptide 17-33. Solid bars extend from the 25th to 75th perzentile. The line in the middle is the median. The whiskers extend down to the lowest value and up to the highest value. Significantly higher antibody reactivity with PBC sera than with sera from healthy individuals: ^aP < 0.05, ^bP < 0.01, ^cP < 0.001. Significantly lower antibody reactivity with PBC sera than with sera from healthy individuals: ^dP < 0.001. ELISA: Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.