Effect of uranium on the induction and course of experimental autoimmune orchitis and thyroiditis.

The influence of acute and chronic uranium poisoning on the induction and course of experimental autoimmune thyroiditis and orchitis was studied. It has been demonstrated that the testes and thyroid gland are involved in the general pathological process in uranium poisoning. Autoantibodies to the testes and to the thyroid gland were found to circulate in the blood of the poisoned animals. Uranium poisoning caused destructive changes in the testes and in the thyroid, similar to the picture of an autoimmune process. No summation of the effect was observed in the synthesis of autoantibodies during the induction of experimental autoimmune thyroiditis and orchitis on the background of chronic uranium poisoning although the most conspicuous histological changes were found in these groups and were characteristic of a pronounced autoimmune process.