Peripheral thymus-dependent (T) lymphocytes in Graves's disease and Hashimoto's thyroiditis.

Abstract

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To evaluate the role of cell-mediated immunity in Graves's disease and Hashimoto's thyroiditis, we studied the percentage of erythrocyte (nonimmune) and erythrocyte-antibody-complement (immune) rosettes (i.e., thymus-dependent and bursa-equivalent lymphocytes) in the peripheral blood. The mean (± S.D.) percentage of nonimmune rosettes was 63.8 ± 5.8 in 24 control subjects, 93.1 ± 6.2 in 17 patients with untreated Graves's disease, 98.8 ± 8.7 in 16 patients with Hashimoto's thyroiditis and 64.5 ± 6.4 in eight "goiter controls," two of whom were hyperthyroid. Six patients with Graves's disease in remission after antithyroid drug therapy had normal counts of lymphocytes forming nonimmune rosettes. Conversely, in five patients maintained in a euthyroid state on antithyroid drugs, but not in remission, 92.4 ± 3.1 (mean ± S.D.) per cent of lymphocytes were of the type forming nonimmune rosettes.