Induction of thyroiditis in mice with thyrotropin receptor lacking serologically dominant regions

Grave's disease (GD) is characterized by pathogenic autoantibodies to the human thyrotropin receptor (hTSH-R), and is frequently associated with a lymphocytic infiltrate of the thyroid gland. In attempts to establish a murine model of GD, we and others have previously shown that immunization of mice with recombinant preparations of the hTSH-R ectodomain induces high titres of specific antibodies, which, however, are not pathogenic, nor is the response accompanied by the development of thyroiditis. Since earlier reports identified the serological immunodominant determinants within the N- and C-terminal regions of hTSH-R ectodomain, we reasoned that immunization of mice with truncated fragments of ectodomain lacking these dominant regions might result in skewing of the response to other determinants of the molecule, with consequent induction of immunopathological features present in GD. We show here that multiple challenge of BALB/c mice with an amino acid fragment of residues 43-282 generates antibodies directed at hTSH-R peptides 37-56, 157-176, 217-236 and 232-251. This reactivity pattern is distinct from that induced previously with the whole ectodomain of hTSH-R in BALB/c animals. Thyroid function remained unaffected in these mice, suggesting that pathogenic antibodies were not being induced. Interestingly, some animals developed lymphocytic infiltration of the thyroid gland, clearly indicating the presence of pathogenic T cell determinants within the 43-282 fragment. Challenge with the related fragment 43-316 produced the same pattern of serological response to the synthetic peptides as fragment 43 282, but was not accompanied by thyroiditis. The results demonstrate: (i) the presence of thyroiditogenic determinants within hTSH-R, and (ii) that these pathogenic determinants are likely to be cryptic, as their effect is exhibited only when the hierarchy of immunodominance within hTSH-R is drastically altered.