In vitro interleukin-1 (IL-1) production in thymic hyperplasia and thymoma from patients with myasthenia gravis.
Using a biological test, we measured in vitro thymic epithelial cell IL-1 activity of 14 thymomas and 8 hyperplasia from myasthenic patients. Our results demonstrate that thymic epithelial cells from hyperplastic thymuses spontaneously produce high amounts of IL-1 compared to controls, while cells from thymomas produce very low amounts of IL-1. After LPS stimulation the difference between patients and controls is no longer significant. Immunohistochemistry studies demonstrate a limited number of IL-1-positive cells on sections from normal thymuses and a variable number of IL-1-positive cells on diseased thymuses, not clearly correlated to the in vitro production. In hyperplastic thymuses an association is found between the level of hyperplasia and in vitro IL-1 production, suggesting a role for IL-1 in the expansion of thymic lymphoid follicles. In thymoma, the low IL-1 production and the loss of corticomedullary organisation raise the possibility that some autoreactive clones could emerge from the lymphocyte pool, present in the abnormal tumoral microenvironment.
Aime
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Centre Chirurgical Marie Lannelongue, Laboratoire d'Immunologie, CNRS URA-1159, Le Plessis-Robinson, France.
Cohen-Kaminsky
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Berrih-Aknin
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D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000818:Animals; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004848:Epithelium / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D005455:Fluorescent Antibody Technique; D006801:Humans; D006965:Hyperplasia; D007223:Infant; D007375:Interleukin-1 / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008875:Middle Aged; D009157:Myasthenia Gravis / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D013945:Thymoma / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D013950:Thymus Gland / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D013953:Thymus Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured
D007375:Interleukin-1