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 ).