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Wolff ASB, Kärner J, Owe JF, Oftedal BEV, Gilhus NE, Erichsen MM, Kämpe O, Meager A, Peterson P, Kisand K, Willcox N, Husebye ES. Clinical and serologic parallels to APS-I in patients with thymomas and autoantigen transcripts in their tumors. JOURNAL OF IMMUNOLOGY (BALTIMORE, MD. : 1950) 2014; 193:3880-90. [PMID: 25230752 PMCID: PMC4190667 DOI: 10.4049/jimmunol.1401068] [Citation(s) in RCA: 37] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
Abstract
Patients with the autoimmune polyendocrine syndrome type I (APS-I), caused by mutations in the autoimmune regulator (AIRE) gene, and myasthenia gravis (MG) with thymoma, show intriguing but unexplained parallels. They include uncommon manifestations like autoimmune adrenal insufficiency (AI), hypoparathyroidism, and chronic mucocutaneous candidiasis plus autoantibodies neutralizing IL-17, IL-22, and type I IFNs. Thymopoiesis in the absence of AIRE is implicated in both syndromes. To test whether these parallels extend further, we screened 247 patients with MG, thymoma, or both for clinical features and organ-specific autoantibodies characteristic of APS-I patients, and we assayed 26 thymoma samples for transcripts for AIRE and 16 peripheral tissue-specific autoantigens (TSAgs) by quantitative PCR. We found APS-I-typical autoantibodies and clinical manifestations, including chronic mucocutaneous candidiasis, AI, and asplenia, respectively, in 49 of 121 (40%) and 10 of 121 (8%) thymoma patients, but clinical features seldom occurred together with the corresponding autoantibodies. Both were rare in other MG subgroups (n = 126). In 38 patients with APS-I, by contrast, we observed neither autoantibodies against muscle Ags nor any neuromuscular disorders. Whereas relative transcript levels for AIRE and 7 of 16 TSAgs showed the expected underexpression in thymomas, levels were increased for four of the five TSAgs most frequently targeted by these patients' autoantibodies. Therefore, the clinical and serologic parallels to APS-I in patients with thymomas are not explained purely by deficient TSAg transcription in these aberrant AIRE-deficient tumors. We therefore propose additional explanations for the unusual autoimmune biases they provoke. Thymoma patients should be monitored for potentially life-threatening APS-I manifestations such as AI and hypoparathyroidism.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anette S B Wolff
- Department of Clinical Science, University of Bergen, 5021 Bergen, Norway;
| | - Jaanika Kärner
- Molecular Pathology Group, Institute of Biomedicine and Translational Medicine, University of Tartu, 50090 Tartu, Estonia
| | - Jone F Owe
- Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Bergen, 5021 Bergen, Norway; Department of Neurology, Haukeland University Hospital, 5021 Bergen, Norway
| | | | - Nils Erik Gilhus
- Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Bergen, 5021 Bergen, Norway; Department of Neurology, Haukeland University Hospital, 5021 Bergen, Norway
| | - Martina M Erichsen
- Department of Medicine, Haukeland University Hospital, 5021 Bergen, Norway
| | - Olle Kämpe
- Department of Medicine, Solna, Karolinska University Hospital, Karolinska Institutet, SE-171 76 Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Anthony Meager
- Biotherapeutics Group, The National Institute for Biological Standards and Control, South Mimms, Potters Bar, Hertfordshire EN6 3QG, United Kingdom; and
| | - Pärt Peterson
- Molecular Pathology Group, Institute of Biomedicine and Translational Medicine, University of Tartu, 50090 Tartu, Estonia
| | - Kai Kisand
- Molecular Pathology Group, Institute of Biomedicine and Translational Medicine, University of Tartu, 50090 Tartu, Estonia
| | - Nick Willcox
- Department of Clinical Neurology, Weatherall Institute for Molecular Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 9DU, United Kingdom
| | - Eystein S Husebye
- Department of Clinical Science, University of Bergen, 5021 Bergen, Norway; Department of Medicine, Haukeland University Hospital, 5021 Bergen, Norway
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Masunaga A, Iwamoto S, Nakamura H, Usuda R, Masuda M, Suzuki S, Miyazaki A, Suzuki T, Mitsuya T, Yoshitake T. Thymic epithelial cells expressed unusual follicular dendritic cell markers: thymic extranodal marginal zone B-cell lymphoma of mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue. Pathol Int 2008; 58:402-5. [PMID: 18477221 DOI: 10.1111/j.1440-1827.2008.02243.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Described herein is a case of thymic extranodal marginal zone B-cell lymphoma of mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue. Using immunohistochemical double staining it was found that most of the thymic lymphoid follicles in this case possessed cytokeratin-positive and follicular dendritic cell (FDC) marker-positive cells. Moreover, using immunoelectron microscopy it was confirmed that some of the double-positive cells were thymic epithelial cells. The candidate of cytokeratin subtype expressed on the double-positive cells was cytokeratin 1 (CK1), which was expressed only by the epithelium of Hassall's corpuscles in thymuses from age-matched patients with myasthenia gravis. The present case indicates a possibility that some thymic epithelial cells become FDC, although it was uncertain whether they were derived from the epithelia of Hassall's corpuscles or whether they were at the same differentiation stage as Hassall's corpuscles.
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Affiliation(s)
- Atsuko Masunaga
- Department of Surgical Pathology, Showa University Fujigaoka Hospital, Yokohama, Japan.
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Characteristics of age-related changes in rat thymus: morphometric analysis and epithelial cell network in various thymic compartments. Biogerontology 2007; 9:93-108. [PMID: 18030593 DOI: 10.1007/s10522-007-9117-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/04/2007] [Accepted: 11/04/2007] [Indexed: 01/21/2023]
Abstract
Structural alterations in thymuses of female rats during the first 2 years of life were evaluated by morphometric analysis and, then, correlated with organization of epithelial cells in various thymic compartments, examined for their cytokeratin immunoreactivity. With an advancing age, the thymuses demonstrated morphological modifications related to maturation and senescence, the dynamics of which varied between particular thymic compartments, and involved subpopulations of thymic epithelial cells. In the entire period of life the most dynamic changes were found in the cortex while the medulla was demonstrated to be a rather "stable" region. Morphometric studies revealed a negative correlation between the volume of thymic cortex and medulla and age of rats and a linear, positive relationship between the volume of connective tissue compartment and age. Changes in organization of epithelial network in the medulla preceded those observed in the cortex. Decreased proliferative activity of subset of medullary cells, which probably represented a self-renewable population, was accompanied by alterations in the immunocytochemically characterized (cytokeratines) differentiation process. At the same period of life, hypertrophy and hyperplasia of superficial epithelial cells seems to functionally replace medullary cells. This process begins around 3rd month of life and expands on all thymic compartments. The first changes in the cortex appeared around 8th month and were connected with reduced cytokeratin immunoreactivity. The involution observed in older animals was preceded by age-related alterations in epithelial network pattern which, in the course of stable morphometric parameters (between 5th and 12th month), showed character of a structural and functional adaptation.
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Abstract
Aging involves morphological and functional alterations within the microenvironment of the thymus where heterogenous populations of thymic epithelial cells (TEC) play the main roles. The studies performed to date on thymic involution signalize a disturbed interaction between individual thymic compartments that disrupt thymocyte-TEC interactions and, as a sequele, disturb differentiation of both TEC and thymocytes. The process of aging affects the various subsets of TEC at different periods of life. Changes in different subsets of TEC are documented on the basis of their phenotypical characteristics, involving morphological analysis and immunocytochemistry. The character and kinetics of changes in TEC are typical for individual subsets and probably sex-dependent. In the course of life, the involutionary changes, expressed by disorganised thymic structure and function, are accompanied by changes in medullary TEC, manifested by alterations in the differentiation process of the cells. In parallel, at the same stage of individual life, the aging process induces increased proliferative and secretory activity of subseptal TEC, which seem to functionally replace medullary TEC. Structural and phenotypic modifications of TEC are locally controlled by complex sets of different factors and seem to represent a morphological adaptation of the gland to the process of aging. Microsc. Res. Tech. 62:488-500, 2003.
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Affiliation(s)
- Renata Brelińska
- Department of Histology and Embryology, University of Medical Sciences, Pl-60-781 Poznań, Poland.
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Langbein L, Pape UF, Grund C, Kuhn C, Praetzel S, Moll I, Moll R, Franke WW. Tight junction-related structures in the absence of a lumen: Occludin, claudins and tight junction plaque proteins in densely packed cell formations of stratified epithelia and squamous cell carcinomas. Eur J Cell Biol 2003; 82:385-400. [PMID: 14533737 DOI: 10.1078/0171-9335-00330] [Citation(s) in RCA: 92] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Tight junctions (TJs), hallmark structures of one-layered epithelia and of endothelia, are of central biological importance as intramembranous "fences" and as hydrophobic "barriers" between lumina represented by liquid- or gas-filled spaces on the one hand and the mesenchymal space on the other. They have long been thought to be absent from stratified epithelia. Recently, however, constitutive TJ proteins and TJ-related structures have also been identified in squamous stratified epithelia, including the epidermis, where they occur in special positions, most prominently in the uppermost living epidermal cell layer, the stratum granulosum. Much to our surprise, however, we have now also discovered several major TJ proteins (claudins 1 and 4, occludin, cingulin, symplekin, protein ZO-1) and TJ-related structures in specific positions of formations of epithelium-derived tissues that lack any lumen and do not border on luminal or body surfaces. Using immunohistochemistry and electron microscopy we have localized TJ proteins and structures in peripheral cells of the Hassall's corpuscles of human and bovine thymi as well as in specific central formations of tumor nests in squamous cell carcinomas, including the so-called "horn pearls". Such structures have even been found in carcinoma metastases. In carcinomas, they often seem to separate certain tumor regions from others or from stroma. The structural significance and the possible functional relevance of the locally restricted synthesis of TJ proteins and of the formations of TJ-related structures are discussed. It is proposed to include the determination of the presence or absence of such proteins and structures in the diagnostic program of tumor pathology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lutz Langbein
- Division of Cell Biology, German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany
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Kuo TT. Cytokeratin profiles of the thymus and thymomas: histogenetic correlations and proposal for a histological classification of thymomas. Histopathology 2000; 36:403-14. [PMID: 10792481 DOI: 10.1046/j.1365-2559.2000.00846.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 46] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
AIMS Since cytokeratins (CKs) are useful as differentiation markers for histogenetic and classification studies, we investigated the CK profiles of the thymus and thymomas in an attempt to understand the histogenetic correlation and to propose a histological classification. METHODS AND RESULTS Nine thymuses and 34 thymomas were immunostained for various CKs of different molecular weights and involucrin. Based on cytomorphology and histoarchitecture, thymomas were classified into spindle cell (SC), small polygonal cell (SPC), mixed, organoid, large polygonal cell (LPC) and squamoid (SQ) thymomas for compiling CK profiles. The thymus was shown to comprise four epithelial compartments, each expressing a different CK profile. Different histological types of thymoma expressed different CK profiles. By correlating the CK profiles of the thymus and thymoma, SPC, SC and LPC thymomas appeared to be related to subcapsular, medullary and cortical cells, respectively. Organoid thymoma recapitulated the structure and CK profile of the normal thymus, while SQ thymoma acquired additional squamous type CK. The applicability and usefulness of the proposed histological classification were evaluated on 147 thymomas by correlating the results with their invasive behaviour. One hundred and thirty-nine cases (95%) could be classified and different histological types correlated strongly with their invasive behaviour. CONCLUSIONS The thymus is a complex epithelial organ composed of heterogeneous cell types giving rise to various related histological types of thymoma. The results of the CK profile study supports the proposed histological classification, which is pathologically applicable and clinically useful in correlating with invasiveness. This cytomorphological classification, supported by the CK expression patterns, is comparable to Müller-Hermelink classification and the new WHO histological classification except that a separate group of SPC thymoma expressing only CK14 and CK19 was identified and separated from mixed thymoma.
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Affiliation(s)
- T t Kuo
- Department of Pathology, Chang Gung University School of Medicine and Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Kwei San, Tao Yuan, Taiwan.
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