Many M C, Drexhage H A, Denef J F
Laboratory of Histology, Louvain Medical School, Brussels, Belgium.
Lab Invest. 1993 Sep;69(3):364-7.
The female nonobese diabetic (NOD) mouse, a well known experimental model to study autoimmune type 1 diabetes, also spontaneously develops thyroiditis. In this study, we report an abnormally high frequency of thymic ectopy in thyroids from NOD mice.
Thyroids and thymuses from NOD mice and from control mice of different strains were processed for light and electron microscopy and for immunohistochemistry.
Ectopic thymic tissue was observed in the thyroids of 80% of female NOD mice, whereas it was not found in control age-paired female mice from various other strains. The thymic tissue was present beneath the capsule as a large and unique fragment consisting of both a cortical dark one and a medullary light region. Thymic ectopies, as the thymus itself, contained thymocytes expressing both L3T4 and Lyt2 antigens, specific respectively for T helper and T suppressor/cytotoxic cells. Cortical and medullary epithelial cells were also easily identified by electron microscopy and by immunohistochemical staining using ER-TR4 and ER-TR5 monoclonal antibodies.
Our observation could be an indication for a relation between abnormal thymus development and autoimmune disorder such as thyroiditis.
雌性非肥胖糖尿病（NOD）小鼠是研究自身免疫性1型糖尿病的一种著名实验模型，它也会自发发生甲状腺炎。在本研究中，我们报告了NOD小鼠甲状腺中胸腺异位的异常高频率。
对NOD小鼠以及不同品系对照小鼠的甲状腺和胸腺进行光镜、电镜及免疫组化处理。
在80%的雌性NOD小鼠甲状腺中观察到异位胸腺组织，而在其他品系年龄匹配的雌性对照小鼠中未发现。胸腺组织作为一个大的独特片段存在于被膜下，由皮质深色区和髓质浅色区组成。胸腺异位组织与胸腺本身一样，含有表达L3T4和Lyt2抗原的胸腺细胞，它们分别对辅助性T细胞和抑制性/细胞毒性T细胞具有特异性。通过电镜以及使用ER-TR4和ER-TR5单克隆抗体的免疫组化染色也很容易识别皮质和髓质上皮细胞。
我们的观察结果可能表明胸腺发育异常与自身免疫性疾病如甲状腺炎之间存在关联。
