Autoimmune disorders and infections are frequent complications of thymomas, but their pathogenesis remains poorly understood. Prompted by the observation of expanded naive hyporesponsive T cells in the blood of a thymoma patient with chronic visceral leishmaniasis and myasthenia gravis, we recently described an acquired CD247 deficiency in isolated thymocytes of a few index thymoma patients with autoimmunity and/or chronic infection.(1) CD247 is an invariant chain of the T-cell receptor (TCR) complex with critical role in intracellular signal transduction, and its downregulation impairs antigen-dependent T-cell activation.(2) Here, we evaluate the tissue expression of CD247 in patients with various thymic epithelial tumors (n=34) using 3 normal thymuses and normal tonsils as controls. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
- Christopoulos, P.
- Chung, I.
- Bozorgmehr, F.
- Muley, T.
- Meister, M.
- Kobinger, S.
- Marx, A.
- Thomas, M.
- Winter, H.
- Herpel, E.
- Rieker, R. J.
- Fisch, P.
- Grosch, H.
Keywords
- Cd247
- T cell receptor
- immunohistochemistry
- lymphocyte
- thymocyte
- thymoma
