A micro reverse haemolytic plaque technique for the detection of antithyroglobulin antibody producing-lymphocytes in Hashimoto's thyroiditis.

Employing a micro reverse haemolytic plaque (RHP) technique, antithyroglobulin antibody producing B-lymphocytes have been detected in thyroglobulin challenged peripheral blood lymphocyte cultures from patients with Hashimoto's thyroiditis. The method employs a monolayer of sheep red blood cells instead of a semi-solid matrix as a medium for the development of plaques. This technique which requires very small amounts of immunoreagents, is therefore much less expensive than the macro methods. In our studies of patients with Hashimoto's thyroiditis, peripheral lymphocytes of patients produced a significantly greater number of plaques than lymphocytes from normal subjects on challenging with thyroglobulin. There was a good correlation between the thyroid antibodies detected by the haemagglutination tests in the sera of the patients and the production of plaques by their lymphocytes. The RHP assay also appeared to be more sensitive than the haemagglutination test. The technique should lend itself for the study of the effect of various lymphokines on cultured lymphocytes.