Thymic Epithelial Cell Development and Its Dysfunction in Human Diseases

Table 5

Thymic dysfunction and human diseases.

Level	Thymic dysfunction	Immunity	Disease
Molecular	Aire gene mutation	Autoimmunity	APECED
	Foxp3 gene mutation	Autoimmunity	IPEX
Cellular	Thymic epithelial tumor	Deficiency/autoimmunity	Thymomas
	Thymic epithelial tumor	Deficiency	Thymic carcinoma
	Treg dysfunction	Autoimmunity	IBD
Individual	Thymus infection/injury	Deficiency	Infectious diseases:
			AIDS (HIV)
			measles (measles virus)
			Ebola infection (Ebola virus)
			syphilis (bacteria)
	Absence of self-tolerance	Autoimmunity	Autoimmune diseases:
			myasthenia gravis
			type 1 diabetes
			autoimmune thyroiditis
			rheumatoid arthritis
			multiple sclerosis
			autoimmune myocarditis
			Graves’ disease