CD4+ FoxP3+ T regulatory cell subsets in myasthenia gravis patients

Publication date: Available online 9 March 2017
Source:Clinical Immunology
Author(s): Siegfried Kohler, Thomas Oskar Philipp Keil, Sarah Hoffmann, Marc Swierzy, Mahmoud Ismail, Jens Carsten Rückert, Tobias Alexander, Andreas Meisel
Although myasthenia gravis (MG) is a classic autoantibody-mediated disease, T cells are centrally involved in its pathogenesis. In recent years a number of studies have analyzed the role of CD4⁺ FoxP3⁺ regulatory T cells (Treg) in the disease with contradictory results. Here, the generation of Treg was significantly reduced in thymoma as compared to thymic hyperplasia and normal thymus tissue (p=0.0002). In the peripheral blood, Treg subsets classified according to CD49d, HELIOS and CD45RA expression changed after thymectomy and in the long-term course of immunosuppression. Compared to healthy volunteers the frequency of CD45RA⁺FoxP3^low Treg was reduced in MG patients in general (p=0.037) and in particular in patients without immunosuppression (p=0.036). In our study, thymectomy and immunosuppressive treatment were associated with changes in Treg subpopulations. The reduced frequency of CD45RA⁺FoxP3^low Treg we observed in MG patients might play a role in MG pathogenesis.



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