We tested serum from 48 patients with Guillain-Barré syndrome and 42 with chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP) against a selected neuroblastoma cell line (NBL 108cc15). Forty-two percent of the patients showed a positive immunofluorescence test against the NBL 108cc15. These antibodies were mainly of the IgM-class; they disappeared in all seven CIDP patients retested after improvement following intravenous IgG treatment (IV-IgG) and were present in only 5% of serum from patients with other disorders. Absorption studies showed a partial homology between the NBL 108cc15 and human sciatic nerve. In vitro studies showed that IgG from pooled normal donors (IV-IgG) inhibits the reaction between serum from a CIDP patient and the NBL cell line. This inhibition may be due to neutralization of autoantibodies against nervous tissue by anti-idiotypic antibodies in IV-IgG.