Effect on mice of intravenous administration of lymphocytes from normal subjects and from patients with myasthenia gravis

SINCE 1960 evidence has accumulated that the serum of many patients with myasthenia gravis contains globulins which may be autoantibodies. The serum globulin of up to 68% of myasthenic patients has been found by the immunofluorescence method to bind with cross striations of skeletal muscles in vitrol-3 and in vivo,2-6 with nuclei of various cells," and with thymic epithelial cells: which were later found to be myoid cells.9 Serum globulin of myasthenic patients has been demonstrated to react with ribonucleoprotein,2~3 saline extract of skeletal muscle,lO and denatured desoxyribonucleic acid.11 Immunological studies in patients with myasthenia gravis have focused mainly on the properties of the serum; however, it has not been proved that the serum globulin plays a role in the pathophysiology of this disease.12J3 It has become increasingly clear that cellular elements, particularly lymphocytes, play a role in immunological processes which may or may not be accompanied by humoral antibody. The immunological activities of lymphocytes of patients with myasthenia gravis have been studied by only a few inve~t igators . l~-~~ The present report describes studies on the immunological and biological activities of lymphocytes of the blood and other tissues from patients with myasthenia gravis and from normal subjects. The results indicate that the circulating lymphocytes and lymphoid cells of the lymph nodes and spleen of myasthenic patients produce stronger graft-versus-host reactions than similar cells from normal subjects and that lymphoid cells of the thymus of myasthenic patients with lymphoid hyperplasia do not have such activity.