| Project/Area Number |
13670652
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
Neurology
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| Research Institution | KYUSHU UNIVERSITY |
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Principal Investigator |
MURAI Hiroyuki University Hospial, Instructor, 医学部附属病院, 助手 (80325464)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
OCHI Hirofumi University Hospital, Instructor, 医学部附属病院, 講師 (20325442)
KIRA Jun-ichi Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Prof., 大学院・医学研究院, 教授 (40183305)
菊池 仁志 九州大学, 医学部・附属病院, 助手 (60322765)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2001 – 2002
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| Project Status |
Completed (Fiscal Year 2002)
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| Budget Amount *help |
¥3,600,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,600,000)
Fiscal Year 2002: ¥1,400,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,400,000)
Fiscal Year 2001: ¥2,200,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,200,000)
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| Keywords | myasthenia gravis / thymus / allergy / apoptosis / Th1 / Th2 balance / autoimmune disease / intracellular cytokine / allergic conjunctivitis |
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| Research Abstract |
We proviously reported the excessive expression of CD23 in the germinal center of thymic hyperplasia in myasthenia gravis (MG) patients. This CD23 was thought to be responsible for preventing unselected germinal center B cells from entering apoptosis and leads to the survival of auto-reactive B cell clones. The CD23 is also associated with the allergic diseases as well.
We performed the study concerning how allergic reaction is related to the pathogenesis of MG. We found that in MG without thymoma has higher prevalence of allergic diseases. In contrast, MG with thymoma has lower prevalence of allergic diseases compared with normall controls. Furthermore, MG patients with allergic diseases tend to have milder MG symptoms compared with those without allergies. Thus pathophysiological background differ between MG with thymoma and without thymoma.
There are two procedures of thymectomy for MG patients; transsternal and endoscopic thymectomy. Endoscopic thymectomy has several advantages such as less post-surgical pain, no operation scar in the chest. In our facility, infrasternal mediastinoscopic thymectomy is routinely performed as MG treatment. We stained peripheral blood cells with CD4, IFN gamma and IL-4 and analyzed flow cytometrically before and after the operation to assess the change in intracellular cytokine production. As a result, intracellular IFN gamma/IL-4 ratio increased after the surgery. This finding suggest that along with the clinical improvement, Th1/Th2 balance changed by the operation. In another words, CD4 positive T-cells shift toward Th1 after infrasternal mediastinoscopic thymectomy.
The relationship between allergic diseases and MG pathogenesis is interesting, and further study is necessary.
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