Autoimmune oophoritis that develops in A/J mice after neonatally thymectomy (NTx) was prevented by a single intraperitoneal injection of spleen cells or thymocytes from normal adult female mice. Prevention of oophoritis was achieved when spleen cells were given within 2 wk after Tx. When spleen cells were obtained from neonatally oophorectomized mice, four times more cells were required for the...

Neonatal thymectomy during the critical period, 2-4 d after birth, can induce various organ-specific autoimmune diseases including oophoritis in A/J mice. The oophoritis thus induced was passively transferred into neonatal mice by injection of spleen cells obtained from syngeneic donors with the disease. Recipient ovaries were rapidly damaged with remarkable mononuclear cell infiltration and de...

We describe a novel experimental system in mice for the study of ovarian autoimmune disease, a condition encountered in women with premature ovarian failure. The ovarian autoimmune disease is induced in B6AF1 mice by a 15-amino acid peptide (Cys-Ser-Asn-Ser-Ser-Ser-Ser-Gln-Phe-Gln-Ile-His-Gly-Pro-Arg) from mouse ZP3, the sperm-binding component of the zona pellucida that surrounds growing and m...

Various organ-specific autoimmune diseases can be readily induced in some strains of mice by thymectomy during the critical neonatal period (NTx), 1 on day 2-4 after birth, without any exogenous sensitization with autoantigen (I-4). ~t is assumed in this model that NTx may eliminate T cells that would otherwis6 ontogenically peripherize via the thymus after the day of thymectomy (Tx), and may c...

A case is described of an autoimmune oophoritis that was diagnosed unexpectedly after a hysterectomy and bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy had been performed on the suspicion of ovarian cysts. The patient was a 43-year-old multiparous woman who presented with vaginal bleeding and lower abdominal pain which she had had for one month. Grossly, the ovaries were enlarged and multicystic. The cysts me...

premature ovarian failure (pof) is a heterogeneous syndrome with several causative factors. autoimmune mechanisms are involved in pathogenesis of 4-30 % of pof cases. the present review focuses on the role of autoimmunity in the pathophysiology of pof. the evidences for an autoimmune etiology are: demonstration of ovarian autoantibodies, the presence of lymphocytic oophoritis, and association w...

Female (C57BL/6xA/J)F(1) mice undergoing thymectomy on day 3 after birth (d3tx) developed autoimmune ovarian disease (AOD) and autoimmune disease of the lacrimal gland. As both were prevented by normal adult CD25(+) T cells, regulatory T cell depletion is responsible for d3tx diseases. AOD began as oophoritis at 3 wk. By 4 wk, AOD progressed to ovarian atrophy with autoantibody response against...

Day 3 thymectomy (D3Tx) leads to a paucity of CD4(+)CD25(+) suppressor T cells, a loss of peripheral tolerance, and the development of organ-specific autoimmune disease in adult mice. Importantly, D3Tx does not lead to autoimmune disease in all mouse strains, indicating that this process is genetically controlled. Previously, we reported linkage of D3Tx-induced autoimmune ovarian dysgenesis (AO...