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In vitro interleukin-1 (IL-1) production in thymic hyperplasia and thymoma from patients with myasthenia gravis

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Abstract

Using a biological test, we measuredin 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 thein vitro production. In hyperplastic thymuses an association is found between the level of hyperplasia andin 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.

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  1. Centre Chirurgical Marie Lannelongue, Laboratoire d'Immunologie, CNRS URA-1159, 133 avenue de la Résistance, 92350, Le Plessis-Robinson, France

    C. Aime, S. Cohen-Kaminsky & S. Berrih-Aknin

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Aime, C., Cohen-Kaminsky, S. & Berrih-Aknin, S. In vitro interleukin-1 (IL-1) production in thymic hyperplasia and thymoma from patients with myasthenia gravis. J Clin Immunol 11, 268–278 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00918185

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