[Histological studies of thymomas from 17 myasthenia gravis and 1 pure red cell aplasia patients and the T cell subsets before and after in vitro culture with rIL-2].
A histological study of thymomas from 17 MG and 1 RCA patients was carried out, taking account of the clinical severity of the patients conditions. The cell surface markers of dispersed thymoma cells were studied before and after in vitro culture with rIL-2 using a panel of T cell monoclonal antibodies by FCM and the histostaining technique. The histological study of the 17 MG thymomas identified 2 invasive, 13 lymphoid hyperplasia, 1 epithelial cell hyperplasia and 1 mixed (lymphoid and epithelial) cell type. There was no clear correlation between the type of histology and the severity of the clinical stage of MG except in 2 patients with thymomas of the histologically invasive type who were in a clinically advanced stage of MG. One thymoma from the PRCA patient was of the histologically mixed cell type. A study of the subpopulations of each thymoma cell showed that the E-rosette-positive and the CD2-positive cells accounted for 77% and 78% of the total thymocytes on the average. There were far fewer mCD3-positive cells (36%) than CD2-positive (78%), CD4-positive (57%) or CD8-positive cells (57%) on the average. After in vitro culture with rIL-2, the percentage of mCD3-positive cells in each thymocyte increased to the level of CD2-positive cells, and the ratio of beta F1-positive cells also increased almost to the same level as mCD3-positive cells, but, in most cases, the percentage of WT31-positive cells was not increased by in vitro culture with rIL-2. Percoll density gradient separations of Case 18 and Case 19 thymoma cells showed that the precursors of CD3+WT31- cells were enriched in the intermediate density layers. These results indicate that rIL-2 induced mCD3-, cCD3+ and beta F1- immature thymocytes to mCD3+ and beta F1+ cells, but did not induce the expression of TCR beta gene product (WT31) on their cell surfaces.
Takiguchi
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Department of Internal Medicine, Kanazawa Medical University.
D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007376:Interleukin-2 / Q000494:pharmacology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009157:Myasthenia Gravis / Q000150:complications / Q000473:pathology*; D012010:Red-Cell Aplasia, Pure / Q000150:complications / Q000473:pathology*; D016176:T-Lymphocyte Subsets / Q000473:pathology*; D013945:Thymoma / Q000150:complications / Q000473:pathology*; D013953:Thymus Neoplasms / Q000150:complications / Q000473:pathology*; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured
D007376:Interleukin-2