抄録
Although the association of two distinct autoimmune
diseases, Graves’ disease (GD) and myasthenia
gravis (MG), is rare, the relationships of clinical
and immunological activities between the two
diseases remain unknown. In the present study, we
investigated whether there exist any relationships
between clinical and immunological activities of GD
and MG as well as any common characteristics of
their HLA antigens in five patients with concomitant
association with GD and MG. The present
study clearly showed positive relationships
between the clinical activities of GD and MG in all
five cases. Except for two cases, one with undetectable
acetylcholine receptor antibody and
another with few sample number, there were positive
relationships between two circulating auto-antibodies
against TSH receptor and acetylcholine
receptor as well as their immunological and clinical
activities in the remaining three cases.
Furthermore, the present serological HLA typing
study revealed that all five cases had common
HLA-DQ3. Therefore, our study clearly demonstrates
a reverse ‘see-saw’ relationship between GD
and MG based on their clinical and immunological
features, and suggests that HLA-DQ3 may play a
potential pathogenic role in the concomitant
development of the two diseases.
