Serum levels of sOX40, but not of sOX40L, were decreased in
patients with MG
Plasma sOX40 and sOX40L levels were measured using ELISAs to explore the
potential roles of soluble costimulatory molecules in patients with MG.
Plasma sOX40 levels in the MG group
were significantly decreased compared with those in the HC group
(Fig. 1E ). Nevertheless, no significant
difference in the plasma sOX40L levels was observed between the MG group
and HC group (Fig. 1F ). The sOX40 and sOX40L levels in the MG
group and HC group are displayed in Supplementary Table 5 .
Significantly lower plasma sOX40 levels were detected in the USMG group
than in the HC group. sOX40 expression levels in the RSMG and PSMG
groups were not significantly different compared with the HC group.
Compared with the USMG and PSMG groups, the levels of sOX40 in the RSMG
group were significantly increased. The levels of sOX40 in the PSMG
group were significantly higher than those in the USMG
group (Fig. 3E ). sOX40L
levels in the PSMG group were significantly decreased compared with
those in the HC group. However, compared with the HC group, the levels
of sOX40L in the RSMG group were not
significantly different from those in the USMG and RSMG groups. The
expression levels of sOX40L in the PSMG group were significantly lower
than those in the USMG and RSMG groups (Fig. 3F ). The levels of
sOX40 and sOX40L in patients with different stages of MG are shown inSupplementary Table 7 .
The levels of sOX40 and sOX40L in 13 patients with MG in the recurrence
stage were significantly higher than those in patients in the paracmasis
stage (Supplementary Table 8, Fig. 4D, F ).