Accumulation of Identical T Cell Clones in the Right and Left Lobes of the Thyroid Gland in Patients with Graves' Disease: Analysis of T Cell Clonotype in vivo Key words: Graves' disease, Intrathyroidal T cell, T cell clonotype, RT-PCR-SSCP

• Published in: ENDOCRINE JOURNAL 2000, Vol.47 (2), p.127-136
• Main Authors: TAICHI SEKINE, RYOJI KATO, TOMOHIRO KATO, KAYO MASUKO-HONGO, FUMIKO KAMEKO, MASAYUKI MARUYAMA, KUSUKI NISHIOKA, KAZUHIKO YAMAMOTO, #
• Format: Article
• Language: Japanese
• ISSN: 0918-8959

To elucidate the involvement of intrathyroidal T cells in the thyroid antigen-specific immune response in Graves' disease (GD), we investigated whether identical T cell clonotypes accumulate clonally in the right and left lobes of thyroid glands of GD patients. mRNAs extracted from thyroid glands of five females patients with GD were reverse-transcribed to cDNA and then the genes coding the T cell receptor B chain variable (V-NDN-J) region were amplified using polymerase chain reaction. Single strand conformation polymorphism analysis and subsequently nucleotide sequencing were also performed to determine the clonotype of accumulating T cells. T cells infiltrating the thyroid glands showed oligoclonal expansion. The expanded T cell clonotypes were not detected in peripheral blood of the same patients. Importantly, the majority of expanding T cell clonotypes in the two lobes of the thyroid glands were identical. Our findings suggest that the clonal expansion of identical T cell clonotypes in the two lobes is driven by factors common to both lobes, such as thyroid-specific antigens, in patients with Graves' disease.