ELISAs
Plasma samples from 78 of 103 patients with MG were selected (no
statistically significant differences in sex, age, MGFA classification
and thymic histology of patients from whom specimens were selected were
observed compared with the general population), and plasma from 30 of 36
healthy volunteers was. Detailed information regarding the samples is
presented in Supplementary Table 1 . Meanwhile, plasma samples
from 37 patients with USMG, 34 patients with RSMG and 30 patients with
PSMG were selected from the plasma sample bank of the First Affiliated
Hospital of Soochow University from July 2017 to May 2021, and the
clinical characteristics of patients with different stages of MG are
shown in Supplementary Table 3 . In addition, plasma sOX40 and
sOX40L expression levels were detected in 13 patients with MG in the
recurrence and remission stages. The frozen plasma specimens were thawed
at room temperature and centrifuged at 2000 rpm for 5 minutes, and the
plasma supernatant was taken for enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay
(ELISA). The concentrations of AchR-Ab were detected in plasma samples
from all patients with MG using the Human Acetylcholine Receptor
Autoantibody ELISA Kit (RSR Biotechnology Co., Ltd., UK). Plasma levels
of sOX40 and sOX40L were measured using ELISAs (human sOX40 and sOX40L
reagent kits were obtained from Shanghai Kang Lang Biological Technology
Co., Ltd., Shanghai, China). The specific experimental procedures used
for ELISAs were performed according to the manufacturer’s instructions.