Autoimmune murine thyroiditis IX. Relationship of humoral and cellular immunity to thyroiditis in high and low responder mice.

Good responder (C57/Br/cd) and poor responder (C57BL/10) mice were immunized with mouse thyroid extract in Freund's complete adjuvant. The good responder mice first showed antibody to thyroglobulin on the seventh day while the poor responder animals had slightly lower titers and antibody did not appear until day 12. The first signs of thyroid infiltration appeared on day 4 in the responder strain, and severe lesions were seen between the third and fifth week. In contrast, the poor responder mice showed almost no evidence of infiltration. The macrophage disappearance reaction, a measure of cell-mediated immunity, was similar in the responder and nonresponder strains.