ANTIGENIC DETERMINANTS OF HUMAN THYROGLOBULIN DIFFERENTIATED USING ANTIGEN FRAGMENTS

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  • 1 January 1985
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 54  (3) , 419-427
Abstract
Human thyroglobulin (Tg) was digested with V8 protease and the fragments separated by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The antigenic relationship of the fragments was investigated using mouse monoclonal antibodies to human Tg. The binding of Hashimoto''s disease autoantibodies to the fragments was measured by radioimmunoassay. This demonstrated that a minority of the patients recognize an epitope on Tg which others do not. The epitopes identified by the smaller fragments tested, but these smaller fragments were more efficient stimulators of Tg-specific T-cell lines than the larger fragments which carry the antibody binding determinants. This suggests that the parts of the Tg molecule which stimulate autoimmune B cells differ from those which stimulate T cells.