Expression Of OX40mRNA On Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells From Patients With Myasthenia Gravis

Objective:To investigate the expression of OX40mRNA on peripheral blood mononuclear cells from patients with myasthenia gravis,and to investigate the significance of OX40 in the onset mechanism of MG primarily.Methods:The expressions of OX40 on peripheral blood mononuclear cells from 36 MG patients and 20 health people were detected by reverse transcription-fluorescent quantitative-PCR(RT-FQ-PCR),and the expressions of IL-4 and IFN-γwere detected as well.Results:(1)Compare with controls,the expression of OX40 on PBMC increased markedly in MG patients(P＜0.001)The expression level of OX40 in MG patients Osserman typeⅡandⅣwere higher than typeⅠ(P＜0.05),and in much serious group of clinic absolute scores was higher than those in slight group(P＜0.05),moreover,there was a positive correlation between the expression of OX40 and the clinic absolute scores in MG patiens(r=0.447,P＜0.01).Expression of OX40 of patients with acute MG increased significiantly than non-acute groups(P＜0.05).(2)The expression level of OX40mRNA from MG patients whose serum PsmRab positive was higher than those negative (P＜0.05),but there was no difference between the groups whose serum AchRab positive or not(P＞0.05)(3)Compare with MG patients with healthy thymus,those with thymic hyperplasia expressed OX40 on PBMC increased(P＜0.05).(4)There was a positive correlation between the expression of OX4OmRNA and IL-4mRNA(r=0.549,P＜0.01).Conclutions:(1)OX40 may play an important role in the pathology and progression of MG.(2)Hyperexpression of OX40mRNA may be one of the pathologys of MG with thymic hyperplasia.(3)There was a positive correlation between the expression of OX40mRNA andIL-4mRNA, suggested that OX40 can promote the production of cytokine of Th2 type to participate in the development of MG.