ANALYSIS OF THE CLONAL ORIGINS OF AUTOANTIBODIES AGAINST THYROGLOBULIN AND DNA IN AUTOIMMUNE-THYROIDITIS AND SYSTEMIC LUPUS-ERYTHEMATOSUS

  • 1 September 1986
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 65  (3) , 520-533
Abstract
We have analysed the isoelectric focusing (IEF) spectra of antithyroglobulin autoantibodies in the sera of patients with autoimmune thyroiditis, and of anti-dsDNA autoantibodies in the sera of patients with systemic lupus erythrematosus (SLE), NZB/NZW F1 hybrid, MRL-lpr/lpr and MRL/++ male and female mice. Ninety-two per cent of patients with anti-thyroglobulin autoantibodies had a polyclonal spectrotype compared with only 25% of SLE patients analysed for anti-dsDNA. Fifty-five per cent of the latter had monoclonal spectrotypes, the remainder being either biclonal or having a dominant clone on a polyclonal background. By contrast, only two out of 61 autoimmune thyroiditis patients expressed monoclonal anti-thyroglobulin autoantibodies. All of the lupus mice had highly restricted spectrotypes (monoclonal or biclonal) of anti-dsDNA autoantibodies. The implications of these results for the aetiology of autoimmunity are discussed.