Prevalence of interrelated autoantibodies in thyroid diseases and autoimmune disorders.
OBJECTIVE
We determined the autoantibody profile in autoimmune thyroid diseases (AITD) and examined the distribution of thyroid-related autoantibodies in other autoimmune disorders.


METHODS
We tested sera from 234 patients with Graves' disease (GD), 130 with Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT), 249 with other autoimmune diseases, and 50 healthy controls by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay or radioimmunoassay.


RESULTS
Autoantibodies except TSH receptor antibody (Ab), anti-thyroglobulin (Tg) Ab and anti-thyroid peroxidase (TPO) Ab were not significantly prevalent in patients with AITD despite a significantly high elevation of thyroid-related Ab. Significant prevalence of autoantibodies related to AITD was observed in type 1 diabetes patients. Elevation of anti-Tg Ab was seen in patients with primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) and autoimmune hepatitis (AIH), and anti-TPO Ab was elevated in patients with PBC. Although the prevalence of anti-acetylcholine receptor Ab and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE)- related Ab was significant in AIH, primary Sjögren's syndrome (pSS)-related Ab were also found in both liver diseases. In myasthenia gravis (MG) patients, thyroid-related Ab and pSS-related Ab were detected in both MG groups, although SLE-related Ab were limited to the anti-muscle specific kinase Ab-positive MG patients. In patients with connective tissue diseases, anti- Tg Ab and anti-TPO Ab were significantly prevalent.


CONCLUSIONS
Thyroid-related Ab were significantly elevated in all autoimmune diseases. Conversely, the elevations of Ab were not significant in the patients with AITD, suggesting a close relationship between AITD and other immune-mediated diseases.
Nakamura
H
H
The First Department of Internal Medicine, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Nagasaki University, Nagasaki City, Nagasaki, Japan. nhideki@nagasaki-u.ac.jp
Usa
T
T
Motomura
M
M
Ichikawa
T
T
Nakao
K
K
Kawasaki
E
E
Tanaka
M
M
Ishikawa
K
K
Eguchi
K
K
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001172:Arthritis, Rheumatoid / Q000276:immunology; D001323:Autoantibodies / Q000097:blood*; D001327:Autoimmune Diseases / Q000276:immunology*; D003922:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1 / Q000276:immunology; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D005968:Glutamate Decarboxylase / Q000276:immunology; D006111:Graves Disease / Q000276:immunology; D050031:Hashimoto Disease / Q000276:immunology; D019693:Hepatitis, Autoimmune / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D018828:Immunoglobulins, Thyroid-Stimulating / Q000032:analysis; D007453:Iodide Peroxidase / Q000276:immunology; D008105:Liver Cirrhosis, Biliary / Q000276:immunology; D008180:Lupus Erythematosus, Systemic / Q000276:immunology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009157:Myasthenia Gravis / Q000276:immunology; D015995:Prevalence; D011863:Radioimmunoassay; D012859:Sjogren's Syndrome / Q000276:immunology; D013954:Thyroglobulin / Q000276:immunology; D013959:Thyroid Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000276:immunology*
D001323:Autoantibodies; D018828:Immunoglobulins, Thyroid-Stimulating; C094372:thyrotropin-binding inhibitory immunoglobulin; D013954:Thyroglobulin; D007453:Iodide Peroxidase; D005968:Glutamate Decarboxylase