Patient’s characteristics
A total of 60 patients were enrolled in the study, including 30 patients with simple thymoma (Tm group) and 30 patients with thymoma and MG (MG group). There was no significant difference between the two groups regarding sex, mean age, and WHO histological classification of thymoma (Table 2).
Frequencies of Th17 and Tregs in peripheral blood from thymoma patients
In our experiment, Th17 cells were identified as CD4+IL17+ T cells, and Tregs were identified as CD4+CD25+FOXP3+ T cells. The number of Th17 and Tregs in peripheral blood was measured by flow cytometry. As shown in Figure 1, the percentage of Th17 in peripheral blood from the TM group (2.02±1.22%) was lower than that from the MG group (3.80±2.00%) (P =0.006). Conversely, the percentage of Tregs in peripheral blood from the TM group (5.90 ± 2.21%) was higher than that from the MG group (4.14±1.28 %) (P =0.015).