Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UNIPROT:P06889 (Mol)
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It has previously been shown that the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) genome may be detected in some thymic tumors. We have investigated specimens of normal thymus, thymitis with lymphoid hyperplasia and a large spectrum of thymic epithelial tumors obtained from european patients for the presence of EBV genome by in situ hybridization and DNA-blotting methods. Cell lines established from seven of the thymic tumors were also tested for EBV. No EBV genome was demonstrated in any of the tumors examined, which included various types of thymoma and thymic carcinomas, nor in the non-neoplastic thymic specimens. However, unlike previous reports, no examples of lymphoepithelial-like thymic carcinoma, nor specimen from Asian patients were included in this study. We suggest that EBV is linked to a specific epithelial tumor type, namely the lymphoepithelial-like carcinoma, regardless of its site, and not to thymic tumors in general.
Virchows Arch B Cell Pathol Incl Mol Pathol 1990
PMID:Absence of the Epstein-Barr virus genome in the normal thymus, thymic epithelial tumors, thymic lymphoid hyperplasia in a European population. 198 4

Non-neoplastic thymuses from 20 patients with myasthenia gravis (MG) have been studied by routine stains on paraffin sections and by immunohistological methods on frozen sections using a panel of monoclonal antibodies against thymic epithelial cells, macrophages/reticulum cells, lymphoid cells and myoid cells. Three types of thymic histology in MG were distinguished: (1) thymitis with lymphoid follicular hyperplasia (11 cases), (2) thymitis with diffuse B-cell infiltration (5 cases) and (3) thymic atrophy (4 cases). Thymitis was more common in younger females and thymic atrophy in older patients. Both types of thymitis were associated with conspicuous structural disturbance of the thymic perivascular space (PVS) and medulla, characterized by a distinct enlargement of the PVS and disruption of the epithelium and reticulin fibre network at the medullary boundary, leading to fusion of the two compartments. The PVS and medulla contained a striking B-cell infiltration. Large well-developed germinal centers (GCs), showing the same cellular organization as in the peripheral lymphatic system, occurred in thymitis with lymphoid follicular hyperplasia, whereas thymitis with diffuse B-cell infiltration merely exhibited a few tiny lymphoid follicles, which could be demonstrated only by immunostaining of dendritic reticulum cells. In thymic atrophy a diffuse B-cell infiltration of the PVS and the medulla was also observed, but only minor alterations of the epithelial framework were seen. There was an increased number of interdigitating reticulum cells with variable expression of the T-6 antigen in all the thymuses examined, indicating an immune stimulation of the intrathymic T-cells. Myoid cells, the supposed target of the intrathymic immune reaction in MG, were found to be less frequent in thymic atrophy than in thymitis. This variable number of myoid cells may explain the different grades of immune stimulation and different types of histology seen in the thymus in MG.
Virchows Arch B Cell Pathol Incl Mol Pathol 1986
PMID:Immunohistological patterns of non-neoplastic changes in the thymus in Myasthenia gravis. 287 80

The microenvironment of myoid cells (MyCs) was studied in myasthenia gravis (MG) thymitis with lymphoid follicular hyperplasia (LFH) (nine cases) and with diffuse B cell infiltration (one case), and compared with findings in the thymuses of non-myasthenic control subjects (ten cases). Double immunostaining was used to demonstrate MyCs labelled by anti-desmin together with other thymic components such as keratin-positive epithelial cells, Ki-M 1-positive interdigitating reticulum cells (IDCs), Ki-M 4-positive follicular dendritic reticulum cells, Ki-M 6-positive macrophages, CD22-positive B-cells, CD1-positive cells, CD3-positive T-cells or HLA-DR-positive cells. Round or elongated MyCs were confined to the thymic medulla and were surrounded by CD3-positive T-cells and CD22-positive B-cells. In MG thymitis MyCs were localized in the vicinity of, but not inside germinal centres (GCs). MyCs were always HLA-DR-negative, but were invariably embedded in a cellular micromilieu with strong HLA-DR expression. A remarkable feature of MG thymitis was that the great majority of MyCs were in intimate contact with intramedullary IDCs. Morphometric studies confirmed that such contacts were significantly less frequent in thymuses from non-myasthenic subjects. This indicates that an IDC-dependent antigen-presenting process for T-cells may actively involve MyCs in MG thymitis.
Virchows Arch B Cell Pathol Incl Mol Pathol 1988
PMID:Microenvironment of thymic myoid cells in myasthenia gravis. 289 42