help button home button Endocrine Society JCEM
HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS

Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism Vol. 52, No. 3 528-533
doi:10.1210/jcem-52-3-528
Copyright © 1981 by the Endocrine Society.
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Submit a related Letter to the Editor
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when eLetters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Request Copyright Permission
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by OKITA, N.
Right arrow Articles by VOLPÉ, R.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by OKITA, N.
Right arrow Articles by VOLPÉ, R.

Suppressor T-Lymphocyte Deficiency in Graves’ Disease and Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis*

NOBUMITSU OKITA{dagger}, VAS V. ROW and ROBERT VOLPÉ

Department of Medicine, University of Toronto, and the Endocrinology Research Laboratory, The Wellesley Hospital Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Address requests for reprints to: Dr. R. Volpé, Endocrinology Research Laboratory, The Wellesley Hospital, 160 Wellesley Street East, Toronto, Ontario M4Y 1J3 Canada.

The involvement of cell-mediated immunity in the pathogenesis of Graves’ disease (GD) and Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (HT) was investigated by employing a modified migration inhibition factor test using preparations of isolated T-lymphocytes. The migration of T-lymphocytes from patients with GD and HT in response to crude human thyroid antigen was significantly inhibited compared to the migration of T-lymphocytes from normal subjects. This response was organ specific. When normal T-lymphocytes were mixed with GD or HT Tlymphocytes in ratios varying from 1:9 to 1:1, the migration inhibition activity of the GD or HT T-lymphocytes in response to thyroid antigen was abolished, but was not abolished when two different GD or HT T-lymphocyte preparations were mixed.

Mitomycin C inhibited this suppressive effect of normal T-lymphocytes in vitro, but did not influence the migration inhibition activity of the antigen-sensitized GD or HT T-lymphocytes. On the other hand, the migration inhibition of GD and HT T-lymphocytes was prevented by puromycin. There thus appears to be activity in normal T-lymphocytes which can suppress the ability of GD and HT T-lymphocytes to respond to the thyroid antigen, which is lacking in the GD and HT T-lymphocytes themselves.

Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that there is a defect in suppressor T-lymphocyte function in GD and HT.

* Presented in part at the International Thyroid Congress, Sydney, Australia, February 4–8, 1980. This work was supported by a grant (MT-859) from the Medical Research Council of Canada.

{dagger} Fellow of the Wellesley Hospital Research Foundation.

Received June 20, 1980.




This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
Arch Intern MedHome page
S. N. Levine
Current Concepts of Thyroiditis
Arch Intern Med, October 1, 1983; 143(10): 1952 - 1956.
[Abstract] [PDF]




HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Endocrinology Endocrine Reviews J. Clin. End. & Metab.
Molecular Endocrinology Recent Prog. Horm. Res. All Endocrine Journals
Copyright © 1981 by The Endocrine Society