Production in vitro of thyroglobulin autoantibody by obese strain (OS) chickens.

Thyroglobulin autoantibody (Tg-AAb) can be spontaneously produced in vitro with thyroid infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) collected from Obese strain chickens 3.5 and 4 weeks old. Attempts to enhance Tg-AAb synthesis with two known polyclonal stimulators of immunoglobulin synthesis in chickens, Staphylococcus aureus Cowan strain 1 and dextran sulphate, failed to increase Tg-AAb production in vitro. Spleen cells and peripheral blood lymphocytes obtained from the same chickens as the TIL and older chickens known to produce moderate to high levels of Tg-AAb in vivo did not produce autoantibody either spontaneously or in the presence of polyclonal Ig stimulators with one exception. With this single, exceptional chicken we obtained a small amount of Tg-AAb produced in vitro with spleen cells. This suggests that in the OS chicken TIL, and to a much lesser extent, the spleen, contribute to the total Tg-AAb produced in this model of autoimmune thyroiditis.