The difference of susceptibility of target thyroid gland to autoimmune thyroiditis induced by a combination of implantation of thyroid gland and injection of lipopolysaccharide.

Autoimmune thyroiditis was induced in CBA/J mice by a newly developed method consisting of a combination of implantation of one whole syngeneic thyroid gland under the capsule of the kidney and subsequent injection of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) intravenously 6 hr after implantation. This procedure was repeated once, a week later. With this method the implanted thyroid gland, after becoming necrotic due to circulatory disturbance and regenerating, also developed definite thyroiditis, quite similar to that of the intact thyroid gland on Day 49. With respect to the H-2 haplotype of the mice, both intact and implanted thyroid glands of CBA/J (H-2k) and C3H/He (H-2k) mice showed severe thyroiditis, whereas those of BALB/c (H-2d) and C57BL/6 (H-2b) mice developed mild inflammation. With a combination of implantation of thyroid glands derived from parental good (CBA/J) or poor responder (BALB/c) mice and subsequent injection of LPS into (good X poor responder) (CBA/J X BALB/c)F1 hybrid mice, it was found that the genetic background of the target thyroid tissue itself has a strong influence on susceptibility.