Spontaneous Thyroiditis in BB Wistar Diabetic Rats

Abstract

Spontaneous lymphocytic thyroiditis was observed at necropsy in 36 BB Wistar diabetic rats (63.2%) and in eight of their nondiabetic siblings (42.1%). The incidence of thyroiditis decreased both with age and with longer duration of diabetes. All rats with pancreatic insulitis (a manifestation of the onset of diabetes) also had thyroiditis. BB Wistar rats with insulitis had more severe lymphocytic thyroiditis, characterized by lymphocytic, plasmacytic, and macrophage infiltration of thyroid interstitium and follicles. A milder, mostly perivascular and interstitial lymphocytic thyroiditis was characteristic of lesions in rats which did not have insulitis. The histological appearance of the thyroiditis suggests that these rats may be subject to autoimmune disease at the onset of diabetes which involves sites other than just the pancreas.

The anti-diabetogenic effect of essential fatty acid deficiency in multiple low-dose streptozotocin-treated mice persists if essential fatty acid repletion occurs outside of a brief window of susceptibility

“…It is possible that EFA deficiency has a generalized protective effect against autoimmune endocrine disease. BB rats also develop a high incidence of spontaneous thyroiditis at the time of onset of diabetes [12]. We also found that EFA deficiency protected the rats from thyroiditis (unpublished observation).…”

Group A streptococcal antigen exposed rat model to investigate neurobehavioral and cardiac complications associated with post‐streptococcal autoimmune sequelae

“…Both Wistar and Lewis rats have been used to examine autoimmune diseases and behavioral changes. For example, Wistar rats have been used to investigate autoimmune diseases including spontaneous thyroiditis, 24 type II collagen‐induced arthritis, 25 autoimmune pancreatitis 26 and autoimmune encephalomyelitis, 27 and neurobehavioral changes such as anxiety, 28 epilepsy, 29 post‐traumatic stress 30 and complications of meningitis 31 . Lewis rats have been used to investigate experimental autoimmune encephalitis, 32 multiple sclerosis 33 .…”

Humoral autoimmunity in the pathogenesis of insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus

“…Similarly, in the BB rat, diabetes has also been linked with auto¬ antibodies against thyroid-, parietaland musclecells (Like et al 1982a;Elder et al 1982;Dyrberg et al 1983). Neither the thyroid antibodies nor the parietal antibodies were accompanied by de¬ creased function of the corresponding cells, even though lymphocytic infiltration of the thyroid was common in old BB rats (Sternthal et al 1981;Wright et al 1983). These observations suggest that the BB rat in general is affected by auto¬ immune reactions, but that the only clinical mani¬ festation is diabetes.…”