Occurrence of lymphocyte proliferative response to thyroglobulin and antithyroglobulin antibodies in normal individuals: lack of correlation with HLA.
Peripheral mononuclear cells (MNC) of patients with autoimmune thyroid disease have been shown to proliferate when cultured with human thyroglobulin (hTg). In addition, such a phenomenon is apparent in a certain number of healthy individuals. In this study we have attempted to correlate hTg-induced MNC proliferation, occurrence of anti-hTg autoantibodies and HLA phenotype (including Class II DR and DQ loci) in a population of HLA-typed normal blood donors. Fourteen out of 56 subjects showed a significant MNC proliferation to hTg. Three of them had anti-hTg autoantibodies in the serum, while none of the hTg-unresponsive subjects showed such antibodies. No correlation with HLA phenotype (including Class II DR5 specificity, referred as associated with Hashimoto's thyroiditis, and DQ alleles) was observed.
D000328:Adult; D001323:Autoantibodies / Q000032:analysis*; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D006680:HLA Antigens / Q000032:analysis*; D006801:Humans; D008213:Lymphocyte Activation / Q000187:drug effects*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010641:Phenotype; D013954:Thyroglobulin / Q000276:immunology / Q000494:pharmacology*
D001323:Autoantibodies; D006680:HLA Antigens; D013954:Thyroglobulin