Fig. 3.
The influence of intrinsic cellular factors and serum factors on thyroglobulin (Tg)-elicited cytokine responses. (a) Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from all patients and controls were grown in medium containing Tg and pooled serum from healthy blood group AB donors. The kinetics of tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-α release is shown as medians and interquartile ranges. *P < 0·05 for HT versus controls. (b) The levels of TNF-α (day 4), interferon (IFN)-γ (day 7), IL-5 (day 4) and IL-10 (day 7) were compared to the corresponding levels in cultures containing autologous serum. Medians and interquartile values of the ratios (autologous serum: AB serum pool) are shown. *P < 0·05 and **P < 0·005 for the ratio equalling 1. (c) For comparison, the anti-Tg activity of each individual was measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and related to that of the AB serum pool (= 1 by definition). (d) Correlation between serum anti-Tg activity and the level of IFN-γ at day 1; rs indicates Spearman's correlation coefficient (for technical reasons, the level of IFN-γ was not measured for one HT patient and one GD patient at day 1).