The thymus of most young female patients is highly remodelled with the development of germinal centers (Figure 1) including B cells producing anti-acetylcholine receptor (AChR) antibodies.

The research work of the team aims to understand the mechanisms of the histological remodelling. Its recent work including microarray experiments has allowed the identification of novel components associated or involved in MG thymic pathogenesis:

• Signs of inflammation [Poea-Guyon, 2005] [Feferman, 2005] ;
• High expression of several chemokines, namely CXCL13 and CCL21[Meraouna, 2006] [Le Panse, 2006];
• Severe functional defect of regulatory T cells [Balandina, 2005];
• Increased expression of estrogen receptors on thymocytes [Nancy, 2005];
• Upregulation by pro-inflammatory cytokines [Poea-Guyon, 2005] of the autoantigen, AChR, present in thymic epithelial and myoid cells [Mesnard-Rouiller, 2004].

Date de création : 26/01/2007 - 0:19 PM
Dernière modification : 18/05/2007 - 4:26 PM
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