Effects of natural or synthetic microbial adjuvants on induction of autoimmune thyroiditis

Natural and synthetic adjuvants of microbial origin were compared for their capacity to potentiate the induction of experimental autoimmune thyroiditis (EAT) with the autoantigen mouse thyroglobulin (MTg). Regardless of the immunomodulator used, severe thyroiditis was observed only in EAT-susceptible strains of the k haplotype and not in EAT-resistant strains of the d haplotype. Compared to phenol-extracted lipopolysaccharide, a potent adjuvant for enhancing EAT induction, phthalyl-substituted, detoxified lipopolysaccharide, even at doses 15- to 50-fold greater, led to only low anti-mouse thyroglobulin titers and mild thyroid infiltration. The synthetic adjuvant N-acetylmuramyl-L-alanyl-D-isoglutamine (MDP) and three of its analogs, N-acetylmuramyl-L-alanyl-D-isoglutamine-L-alanyl-D-glycerol mycolate (MDP-L-Ala-Glyc-Myc), N-acetylmuramyl-L-alanyl-D-glutamyl-(decyl)methyl ester [MDP(decyl)methyl], and N-acetylmuramyl-L-alanyl-D-glutamine-alpha n-butyl ester [MDP-(Gln)-OnBu], designated murabutide, were tested in incomplete Freund adjuvant or in saline. In incomplete Freund adjuvant, MDP-L-Ala-Glyc-Myc was inefficient in inducing EAT, murabutide induced very mild involvement, and MDP and, more so, MDP(decyl)methyl were active but to a lesser degree than CFA. When saline was used, low levels of thyroid infiltration were observed in a few of the MDP-treated animals in only one experiment, whereas no lesions were observed when murabutide was used.