Spontaneous autoimmune thyroiditis in chickens. I. Effects of bursal reconstitution.

Chicks from strains genetically susceptible or resistant to spontaneous autoimmune thyroiditis were neonatally treated with cyclophosphamide to induce lymphocytic depletion of the bursa of Fabricius. The subsequent bursal repopulation with B cells from donors matched at the major histocompatibility locus showed B cells to be intricately associated with the pathogenesis of spontaneous autoimmune thyroiditis, although they themselves did not carry the potential for initiation of the disease.