Anti-idiotypic immunity and autoimmunity: III. Investigations in human autoimmune thyroiditis.

We have recently shown that autoantibodies to thyroglobulin in from rats with spontaneous autoimmune thyroiditis share idiotypic determinants and can be characterized using heterologous anti-idiotypic antibodies. We have also shown that cross-reacting idiotypic determinants are present on autoantibodies to rat thyroglobulin from rats with experimentally induced autoimmune thyroiditis as well as on antibodies to rat thyroglobulin from animals of various strains and species. In the present paper we report that anti-idiotypic antibodies have been obtained in rabbits immunized with purified human autoantibodies against thyroglobulin. We also confirm the finding that both human and rat autoantibodies to thyroglobulin partially cross-react with heterologous thyroglobulin.