Aberrant decrease of microRNA19b regulates TSLP expression and contributes to Th17 cells development in myasthenia gravis related thymomas

Myasthenia gravis (MG) is an organ-specific autoimmune disease. The imbalance of T helper type 17 cells (Th17) plays a key role in the pathogenesis of thymomatous MG. But the regulatory mechanism for Th17 cell development in MG-related thymoma remains undefined. Here we demonstrated that thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP) is significantly decreased in thymomas. We also proved that TSLP was post-trancriptionally regulated by microRNA-19b. The expression of microRNA-19b was negatively correlated with the expression of TSLP mRNA and protein in thymomas. This study indicated that the elevation of microRNA-19b suppressed TSLP expression and then influenced T cell development in thymomatous MG. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.