Spontaneous autoimmune thyroiditis - a bird's eye view

Lymphomatous goiter (struma lymphomatosa) first described by Hashimoto in 1912(1), was shown to be an autoimmune disorder 30years ago(2). In the sameyear an autoimmune thryoiditis was first induced experimentally by immunization with autologous thyroid extract and complete Freund's adjuvant(3). Among the many insights gainedfrom the study of such experimentally induced thyroiditis(3-5) is the notion that susceptibility to it is under a genetic control which influences both the reactivity of the immune systems and the properties of the thyroid gland(7). This is supported by the appearance of autoimmune thyroiditis in genetically restricted animal populations. Here Georg Wick and his colleagues review recent studies of the Obese strain (OS) of chickens and compare the pathogenesis of theirspontaneous autoimmune thyroiditis with that of Hashimoto's disease.