Anomalies of cellular immunity in Graves' disease treated by synthetic antithyroid drugs: effects on prognosis

The involvement of humoral immunity mechanism in etiology of Graves' disease was observed for the first time in 1956. Twenty years later cellular auto-immune dysfunction was also described. To day, there is evidence for suppressor T cell deficiency and decrease in T suppressor lymphocytes in Graves' disease and cell mediated immunity might be one of the most important point in the pathogenesis of Graves disease. For the future, cellular auto-immune dysfunction might be used to predict the evolution of the disease and to choice the best therapeutic scheme.