Studies of cellular immunity in Graves' disease.

Cell immunity aspects were studied in patients with untreated Graves' disease or thyreotoxicosis relapsing after anti-thyroid drug therapy interruption. The peripheral blood T-lymphocyte count was significantly low (p less than 0.05) in the untreated patients. The leucocyte inhibition factor (LIF) test showed only a slight sensibilization of lymphocytes to thyroglobulin in the untreated patients, whereas in those with relapsed thyreotoxicosis there was a marked sensitization to thyroglobulin and microsomal antigen. Our observations suggest that part of the untreated patients have some abnormalities in the function of their lymphocytes. All the relapsed cases showed an intense sensitization of lymphocytes in the direct LIF test. The possibility of using the LIF test as an indicator of thyreotoxicosis release after interruption of the anti-thyroid drug therapy is suggested.