Rapidly Sedimenting Properties of Specifically Precipitating Component of a Hashimoto's Disease Serum

Abstract

Serum was obtained from a patient with Hashimoto''s disease at thyroidectomy and six months postoperatively. The first serum was found to form a precipitate on the addition of thyroid extract as has been described by others. On ultracentrifugation, the precipitating components were in the heavy globulin fraction (s = 20 S) rather than in the light globulin fraction (s = 7 S). Double diffusion experiments by the Ouchterlony method also indicated that the antibody was of high molecular weight. The antibody seemed to have disappeared from the serum within six months after surgery.