No development of experimental autoimmune thyroiditis in nude mice.

Homozygeous nu/nu mice do not develop experimental autoimmune thyroiditis and circulating thyroglobulin autoantibodies after two immunizations with murine thyroid extract and fortified complete Freund's adjuvant. However, heterozygeous nu/+ mice are perfectly apt for the induction of both thyroiditis and thyroglobulin autoantibodies. These results provide further evidence for the assumption that the development of experimentally induced autoimmune thyroiditis depends on the presence of T-cells as opposed to the spontaneously occurring autoimmune thyroiditis in Obese strain (OS) chickens which is mediated by B-effector cells. The present data further show that thyroglobulin is a T-dependent antigen in the mouse.