Abstract
The CD 4+CD 8- helper T (TH) cells were cloned from childhood myasthenia gravis (MG) patients with negative or low level of anti-AChR antibody in sera. TH 1-like cell clones, which expressed IL-2 and IFN-γ mRNA, but not IL-4 or IL-5 mRNA, were established from peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBLs) of those patients. TH 2-like cell clones, expressing IL-4 and IL-5 mRNA, but not IL-2 or IFN-γ mRNA, were not established from PBLs of the same patients. Neither TH 1-like cell nor TH 2-like cell clone was found from PBLs of the healthy control children. Most of the established TH cell clones from healthy children expressed both IL-2 and IL-4 mRNA. There was the correlation between the number of TH 1-like cell clones from PBLs of childhood MG patients and the recurrence or the excerabation of clinical signs. As TH 1 cells were involved in the cellular immune responses in vivo, it is presumed that the cellular immune responses play the important role for the recurrence or the excerabation of the clinical signs of childhood MG patients.
