Review

Localization of the immunodominant region on human thyroid peroxidase in autoimmune thyroid diseases: an update

Damien Bresson^1,2, Sandra A Rebuffat¹ and Sylvie Péraldi-Roux¹

¹  CNRS UMR 5160, Centre de Pharmacologie et Biotechnologie pour la Santé, Faculté de Pharmacie, 15 avenue Charles Flahault, BP 14491, 34093 Montpellier Cedex 5, France

²  La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology, Department of Developmental Immunology-3, 10355 Science Center Drive, San Diego, CA 92121, USA

Journal of Autoimmune Diseases 2005, 2:2doi:10.1186/1740-2557-2-2

Published:	15 March 2005

Abstract

Recent studies in the field of autoimmune thyroid diseases have largely focused on the delineation of B-cell auto-epitopes recognized by the main autoantigens to improve our understanding of how these molecules are seen by the immune system. Among these autoantigens which are targeted by autoantibodies during the development of autoimmune thyroid diseases, thyroid peroxidase is a major player. Indeed, high amounts of anti-thyroid peroxidase autoantibodies are found in the sera of patients suffering from Graves' disease and Hashimoto's thyroiditis, respectively hyper and hypothyroidism. Since anti-thyroid peroxidase autoantibodies from patients'sera mainly recognize a discontinuous immunodominant region on thyroid peroxidase and due to the complexity of the three dimensional structure of human thyroid peroxidase, numerous investigations have been necessary to closely localize this immunodominant region. The aim of the present review is to summarize the current knowledge regarding the localization of the immunodominant region recognized by human thyroid peroxidase-specific autoantibodies generated during the development of autoimmune thyroid diseases.