Results
OX40/OX40L expression was increased on lymphocytes in the peripheral blood from patients with MG
Flow cytometry was used to analyze the expression of OX40 and OX40L on the peripheral blood lymphocytes of all subjects. The expression of OX40 on CD4+ T cells in the MG group was significantly higher than that in the HC group (Fig. 1A, B ). Compared with the HC group, OX40L expression was significantly increased on CD19+ B cells and CD14+ monocytes from the MG group (Fig. 1A, C, D ). The levels of mOX40 and mOX40L in the MG group and HC group are presented inSupplementary Table 4 .
OX40 was expressed at significantly higher levels on CD4+ T cells from the USMG, RSMG and PSMG groups than on cells from the HC group. Compared with the USMG and PSMG groups, OX40 expression on CD4+ T cells from the RSMG group was significantly increased (Fig. 3A, B ). OX40L expression on CD19+ B cells was significantly increased in the PSMG group compared with the HC group (Fig. 3A, C ). Higher expression of OX40L was detected on CD14+ monocytes from the RSMG group than on cells from the HC group (Fig. 3A, D ). However, no significant difference in OX40L expression on CD19+ B cells and CD14+ mononuclear cells was observed among the USMG, RSMG and PSMG groups. The levels of mOX40 and mOX40L in patients with different stages of MG are shown in Supplementary Table 6 .