[Thymic abnormalities in patients with myasthenia gravis]

Thymic abnormalities were first noticed at autopsies of patients with myasthenia gravis (MG) more than 100 years ago. The thymus is believed to play an important role in the pathogenesis of MG, an autoimmune disease mediated by antibodies against the acetylcholine receptor (AChR) of skeletal muscles. Production of these antibodies in B cells is T cell dependent. T cells potentially specific for AChR are probably generated in the thymus via nontolerogenic thymopoiesis by an aberrant function of thymic epithelial cells. However, generation of these AChR-specific T cells is not the cause of MG, because these cells are also found in healthy individuals. The pathogenetic step in MG involves the activation of these potentially AChR-specific T cells; this activation is the trigger to develop the disease and a therapeutic target. The intra-thymic activation of AChR-specific T cells is probably limited to particular types of MG patients: those with early-onset MG in whom the thymus exhibits lymphofollicular hyperplasia (TLFH) and a few patients in whom MG is associated with a thymoma. The majority of thymomas and atrophic thymuses of patients with late-onset MG, an increasingly common condition, do not exhibit this T cell-activation process. In this paper, we review the available literature on thymic changes (TLFH, thymoma, and atrophic thymus) and the relationship of these changes to the pathogenesis of MG.