Sodium and potassium channels in epithelial cells from thymus glands and thymomas of myasthenia gravis patients.

In both normal and neoplastic epithelial cells from human thymus glands and thymomas, respectively, we found voltage-gated sodium and potassium channels that resemble the adult-type Na channel and the delayed outward rectifier K channel, respectively, of human skeletal muscle and mammalian nervous system. These voltage-gated ion channels might be part of a communication system between epithelial cells and other components of the microenvironment of the thymus.