FIG. 2.

Glycosylation of the TSHR A-subunit in relation to the induction of TSHR antibodies. Data from published studies (27–29) have been combined or re-plotted. Mice were immunized twice with adenovirus expressing the A-subunit of the mouse or human TSHR. Autoantigens: the mouse TSHR in wild-type mice, the human A-subunit in transgenic mice, TSHR knockout (KO) mice lack any TSHR autoantigen; all mice are on the BALB/c background. Data shown are the number of mice that were positive (+ve, black bars) or negative (−ve; open bars) for TSHR antibodies (TSHR Ab). Significance of differences was tested by Fishers' exact test. (a) Wild-type mice immunized with high-dose mouse-TSHR A-subunit adenovirus (4 N-glycans) (27) versus human A-subunit transgenic mice immunized with high-dose human TSHR A-subunit (5 N-glycans) adenovirus (28,29). Antibodies to the mouse TSHR were measured by flow cytometry by using mouse TSHR-expressing Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells; antibodies to the human TSHR were determined by TSH binding inhibition. The figure shows the combined numbers of TSHR antibody positive mice from two studies (28,29). (b) TSHR KO mice immunized with adenovirus expressing the mouse TSHR A-subunit or the human-TSHR A-subunit versus the mouse-TSHR A-subunit. Antibodies were measured by flow cytometry by using CHO cells expressing the mouse TSHR or the human TSHR, respectively, depending on the immunogen. Data plotted from Nakahara et al. (27), © 2010 The Endocrine Society.