Myasthenia gravis is considered to be the most classic autoimmune disease, and the thymus is the central immune organ of the body. The pathogenesis of myasthenia gravis is closely related to thymic abnormalities, with thymoma in about 15% of patients and thymic hyperplasia in about 70%.
The pathogenesis of myasthenia gravis is related to autoantibody-mediated damage to acetylcholine receptors. The major cause of myasthenia gravis is autoantibody-mediated damage to acetylcholine receptors, which leads to muscle contraction weakness due to cellular immunity and complement involvement.
The immune response to acetylcholine receptors is closely related to the thymus, which contains “myoid cells” that are antigenic to acetylcholine receptors and promote the production of antibodies to acetylcholine receptors. Removal of the thymus can weaken or even eliminate the role of the thymus or thymoma in the pathogenesis of myasthenia gravis.
