Microbial adjuvant and autoimmunity. IV. The induction of thyroid lesions in syngeneic X-irradiated mice by the transfer of spleen cells from mice immunized with thyroid extract and Klebsiella O3 lipopolysaccharide.

The role of humoral and cellular immune responses in the initiation and maintenance of autoimmune thyroiditis was investigated in mice immunized with syngeneic thyroid extract and Klebsiella O3 lipopolysaccharide (KO3 LPS) as an adjuvant. The transfer of spleen cells from hyperimmunized mice to 400R-irradiated syngeneic mice produced definite lesions in the thyroid glands, whereas the transfer of immune sera failed to do so. No lesions were induced in normal intact mice by the same transfer of sera and spleen cells from hyperimmunized mice. It was suggested that the induction of thyroiditis by immunization using KO3 LPS adjuvant is primarily due to cell-mediated immunity and that pretreatment of mice by X-irradiation is essential for production of the lesions. The role of X-irradiation in the induction of thyroiditis was discussed.