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. 1987 Nov;70(2):403–410.

The remarkable proliferation of helper T cell subset in response to autologous thyrocytes and intrathyroidal T cells from patients with graves' disease

K Eguchi, T Otsubo, Y Kawabe, Y Ueki, T Fukuda, Mayumi Matsunaga, Chikako Shimomura, N Ishikawa, H Tezuka, H Nakao, K Ito, C Morimoto, S Nagataki
PMCID: PMC1542078  PMID: 2962792

Abstract

We have studied cellular interactions among thyrocytes, intrathyroidal T cells and peripheral blood T cells from Graves' patients. In the autologous mixed lymphocyte reaction of Graves' patients, CD4+ cells were able to proliferate vigorously against autologous non-T cells, whereas CD8+ cells responded weakly to non-T cell stimulators. Furthermore, the proliferative response of the CD4+ 2H4+ suppressor-inducer T cell subset was increased like that of the CD4+ 2H4- helper T cell subset. In contrast to peripheral blood non-T cell stimulators, thyrocytes and intrathyroidal T cells had the ability to activate the CD4+ 2H4- helper T cell subset but were not able to cause proliferation both of CD4+ 2H4+ suppressor-inducer T cell and CD8+ suppressor/cytotoxic T cell subsets. The marked reduction in proliferative respones of CD4+ 2H4+ cells and CD8+ cells could not be attributed to a difference in kinetics or altered response to variable number of stimulator cells. On the basis of these findings, it is suggested that the concentration of the helper T cell subset may be progressively increased and suppressor circuits may be unable to be activated in thyroid tissues. These abnormalities in cellular interactions may induce the excessive production of autoantibodies.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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