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Perivascular infiltrate of memory lymphocytes and mature dendritic cells in MG thymomas

From the Department of Neurology (Drs. Nagane, Utsugisawa, and Terayama), The Second Department of Anatomy (Drs. Akutsu and Sato), Iwate Medical University, Morioka, Japan.

Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. K. Utsugisawa, Department of Neurology, Iwate Medical University, 19-1 Uchimaru, Morioka, 020-8505, Japan; e-mail: kutsugi{at}iwate-med.ac.jp

In thymomas associated with myasthenia gravis (MG), the authors found that perivascular infiltrates of memory lymphocytes and mature dendritic cells (DCs) were more frequent in patients with early improvement after thymectomy than in patients without response to thymectomy. Although these findings may be limited to particular types of thymoma, thymectomy may interrupt the recruitment of mature DCs in thymus and export of activated T cells to extra-thymic tissues, thereby improving the disease.

Supported in part by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan.

Disclosure: The authors report no conflicts of interest.

Received March 28, 2005. Accepted in final form May 23, 2005.