Table 2.
Physiopathological features of patients with autoimmune thyroid diseases and myasthenia gravis (MG).
| Hashimoto’s thyroiditis | Graves’ disease | AChR-MG | MuSK-MG | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Humoral immunity | Target of the autoantibodies | TG (20–50%), TPO (90–95%) | TSHR | AChR | MuSK |
| Mechanism of the Abies | Thyroid destruction by cytotoxic cells, death receptors, and impairment of thyroid hormone production | Overactivation of the gland: thyroid stimulatory, blocking, and neutral Abies | AChR blocking, internalization, and degradation | Disruption of neuromuscular junction and inhibition of the retrograde signaling | |
| Role of complement | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | |
| Cellular mechanisms | Infiltration of the target organ | +++ Thyroid | + Thyroid, but not destruction | Neg in the muscle | Neg in the muscle |
| +++ in the thymus | Neg in the thymus | ||||
| Ectopic GC | Yes (thyroid) | Yes (thyroid) | Yes (thymus) | No | |
| T-cell involvement | Th1, Th17 | Th2, Th17 | Th1, Th2, Th17 | Th1, Th17 | |
| Role of epithelial cells | Overproduction of pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines by thyroid epithelial cells | Overproduction of pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines by thymic epithelial cells | Unknown | ||
| Regulatory B cells | Normal B10 number | Normal B10 number | Decreased B10 cell number | Decreased B10 cell number | |