마우스의 실험적 갑상선염에 대한 Methimazole 의 면역억제 효과에 관한 연구 = Immunosuppressive Effect of Methimazole ( 1 - methyl - 2 - mercaptoimidazole ) on Experimental Thyroiditis of Mouse

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

To examine the effect of methimazole (1-methyl-2-mercaptoimidazole) on the autoimmune thyroid disease, experimental immune thyroiditis was induced in the good responder strains of C3H mouse bearing H-2k allele by immunization with human thyroglobulin in complete Freund`s adjuvant (CFA). Purified thyroglobulin was obtained by ultracentrifugation and column chromatography of human thyroid tissue. Total number of mice was 89 and they were divided into 5 groups as follows: group 1; normal controls, group 2; immunized controls, groups 3; immunized mice given methimazole and ι-thyroxine, group 4; immunized mice given methimazole only, group 5; immunized mice given ι-thyroxine only. Antihuman thyroglobulin antibody was measured weekly by hemagglutination test with tanned hemagglutination kit (Fuzizoki Co., Japan). Histopathologic changes of thyroid gland were examined at the 4th, 6th and the 8th week. The results were summarized as followings: 1) Experimental thyroiditis developed by immunization with human thyroglobulin in CFA and the main histopathologic features were mononuclear cell infiltration and follicular destruction. The histopathologic changes were most severe at the 8th week after immunization. 2) In group 2 antithyroglobulin antibody began to appear 2 weeks after immunization and the titers rose from 1:80² at the 4th week to 1:320²-640² at the 8th week of the experiment. 3) In group 3 and group 4, the histopathologic changes were significantly milder than that of group 2 at the 8th week of experiment. But no significant histopathologic differences were noted between group 5 and group 2. Also, no significant histopathologic differences were found between group 3 and group 4. 4) Antithyroglobulin antibody titers of group 3 were significantly lower than those of group 2 at the 7th and the 8th week. But there were no significant differences in antithyroglobulin antibody titers among group 4, group 5 and group 2. From the above observations, it is assumed that methimazole has an immunosuppressive effect on the experimental thyroiditis of the mouse, irrespective of functional state of thyroid.