Clinical Studies on Thyroidal Autoantibodies

Abstract

In an attempt to clarify autoimmune nature of Graves' disease and Hashimoto's thyroiditis, thyroidal autoantibodies have been studied on 86 cases of Graves' disease, 54 cases of Hashimoto's thyroiditis, 31 cases of simple goiter, 11 cases of primary hypothyroidism and 22 cases of thyroid neoplasia as well as on 364 healthy subjects. Two kinds of tanned red cell hemagglutination tests were carried out on each case. One method using refined human thyroglobulin for sensitization of sheep red cells has been found to be specific for anti-thyroglobulin antibody and to be frequently positive in Hashimoto patients. However, in another method using human thyroidal microsomes (purified by ultracentrifugation) as sensitizing antigen, some heterogenous antibodies including anti-thyroglobulin antibody might be detected together with the antibody against the antigen proper to thyroidal microsome (HF antigen) which is derived from hyperfunctioning thyroidal follicular cells of Graves patients. Anti-HF antibody is frequently detected both in Hashimoto and Graves patients. In other thyroid diseases the titers of both thyroidal autoantibodies were generally low, though higher than in healthy subjects. The effect of aging on thyroidal autoantibodies in healthy subjects was clearly observed in females but not in males. From the results of these two tests, it is possible to speculate that high-columnar and hyperfunctioning thyroidal follicular cells might exist focally in most cases of Hashimoto's thyroiditis. © 1975, The Japan Endocrine Society. All rights reserved.