Appearance of thyroid stimulating and blocking immunoglobulins after bone marrow transplantation: presentation of two contrasting cases.

Two acute leukemia cases who presented autoimmune thyroid diseases after bone marrow transplantation (BMT) are described with reference to the pathogenesis of their autoimmune clones. A 37-year old Japanese woman developed Graves' hyperthyroidism 39 months after allogeneic BMT for acute myeloid leukemia (AML) donated from her sister. Although both donor and recipient were euthyroid and negative for thyroid autoimmunity before BMT, the donor was positive for anti-nuclear and anti-single strand DNA autoantibodies. Studies on polymorphism for variable number of tandem repeat region of T-cell receptor gene suggested that the lymphocytes responsible for the hyperthyroidism were of donor origin. The second case was a 12-year-old Japanese schoolboy who presented nongoitrous hypothyroidism 2 years after autologous BMT for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). He had been clinically euthyroid before transplantation. Family history revealed that his mother and sister had a history of Graves' disease. His serum was positive for thyroid-stimulation blocking antibody. It is highly likely that the autoimmune process was activated after transient immune suppression during peri-BMT period in this patient. Pathogenesis, incidence, and observed time lag between BMT and development of autoimmune thyroid diseases were discussed.