Incidences of Antibodies to Yersinia enterocolitica: High Incidence of Serotype O5 in Autoimmune Thyroid Diseases in Japan.

Abstract

Antibodies to Yersinia; enterocolitica serotype 03, 05, 06 and 09 were measured by the micro-agglutination method in 445 healthy subjects and patients with Grave's disease (n=70), Hashimoto's disease (n=45) and thyroid tumor (n=29). In contrast to previous reports, the incidence of antibodies to serotype 03 in each group of patients with thyroid diseases was not significantly different from that in healthy subjects. However, the incidence of antibodies to serotype 05 was significantly higher in patients with Graves' disease (81.4%, P<0.001) and Hashimoto's disease (91.1%, P<0.001) than in healthy subjects (58.9%). Significantly increased incidence of antibodies to serotypes 06 and 09 was observed only in patients with Hashimoto's disease (40.0% and 51.1% vs healthy subjects 24.7% and 29.9%, respectively). Patients with thyroid tumor showed no increase in any serotype of Yersinia enterocolitica. No correlations was found between the titers of anti-Yersinia antibodies and antithyroglobulin or anti-microsomal antibodies. These data indicate an association between thyroid autoimmunity and antibodies to Yersinia enterocolitica. These results are different from those in reports from other countries, seggesting that serotype specificity may be influenced by racial or genetic factors.

The environment and autoimmune thyroid diseases

“…In Greece, 25% of Hashimoto patients had IgG antibodies and 2.8% had IgA antibodies, compared with 2 and 0% respectively in controls (196). A higher incidence of Y. enterocolitica antibodies in Graves and Hashimoto patients than in controls was also found in Japan and Turkey (197,198). However, there are also studies that could not confirm these findings and found a similar rate of seropositivity in AITD patients and controls (199,200).…”

Is There Anything to the Reported Association Between Helicobacter pylori Infection and Autoimmune Thyroiditis?

“…For example, antibodies toward Yersinia enterocolitica have been found to be highly prevalent in patients with autoimmune thyroid diseases, such as Graves' disease and Hashimoto's thyroiditis (1)(2)(3), and even in nonaffected female relatives of such patients (4). It has also been suggested that retroviruses Manuscript received June 25, 2004; accepted August 5, 2004. could be implicated in the pathogenesis of Graves' disease (5,6).…”

Does <i>Yersinia</i> Induce Autoimmunity?

“…The finding has been confirmed by several groups, also in countries where the incidence of Y. enterocolitica 0 :3 infections is low [5][6][7][8][9][10]. No clear proof is available to indicate that the same would apply for other serotypes of Y. enterocolitica or for Y. pseudotuberculosis [5,8,9,11], Considerable evidence exists that Yersinia-specific anti bodies cross-react with thyroid structures. This was first re ported by Lidman et al [12] who, using immunofluores cence, showed that human sera with antibodies against Y.enterocolitica 0 :3 react with thyroid epithelial cells.…”