Acta Medica 34. (1977)
1977 / 4. szám - Balázs, Cs.-Leövey, A.-Szerze, P.-Kovács, L.-Bordán, L.: Antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity in Graves disease
4* Acta Medica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, Tomus 34 (4), pp. 235—239 (1977) ANTIBODY-DEPENDENT CELL-MEDIATED CYTOTOXICITY IN GRAVES DISEASE Cs. Balázs, A. Leövey, P. Szerze, L. Kovács, L. Bordán FIRST DEPARTMENT OF MEDICINE, MEDICAL UNIVERSITY, DEBRECEN (Received: August 25, 1977) The antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity of peripheral lymphocytes from patients with Graves disease was tested using chicken erythrocytes coated with rabbit antichicken red blood cell antibody and labelled with 61Cr. An increased cytotoxic activity was found in untreated Graves disease without ophthalmopathy. The cytotoxic activity was less elevated in the groups of patients with severe ophthalmopathy or high level of anti-thyroglobulin antibody, and approximately normal after methimazole treatment. Introduction Antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC) was demonstrated by Perlmann and Holm [15], MacLennan and Loewi [12] in chicken erythrocytes and Chang liver cells coated with cell specific antibody. The nature of the effector cells causing ADCC is uncertain [3]. It was observed that the ADCC activity could be inhibited by soluble immune complexes [13]. The subpopulation of both monocytes and lymphocytes bearing Fc receptors were supposed to be effector cells in the ADCC [2, 7, 14]. The biological significance of ADCC has not been elucidated but its importance in tumour rejection and autoimmune diseases has been assumed [2, 4, 9, 11, 17]. The purpose of the present study was to determine the changes of ADCC in various form and stages of Graves disease and to test the effect on ADCC activity of methimazole, propranolol, and triiodothyronine (T3). Patients and methods Thirty-six (30 females and 6 males, ranging in age from 18 to 54 years and suffering from Graves disease) were studied before thyrostatic treatment. ADCC activity was tested in 20 patients (17 females and 3 males, aged from 20 to 48 years) after methimazole and in 12 patients (8 females and 4 males, aged from 24 to 42 years) after propranolol, and 20 healthy subjects (16 females and 4 males, 20 to 52 of age). The diagnosis was based on standard criteria [6] and confirmed by detection of serum of T3, the TRH test, radioiodine uptake and thyroid gland scanning. The ophthalmopathy was estimated by standard criteria of American Thyroid Association [18, 19]. The sera were investigated for anti-thyroglobulin antibody by the tanned red blood cell hemagglutination technique using purified human thyroglobulin [8]. Acta Medica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 34, 1977