Lack of Evidence for the Presence of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1-Related Sequences in Patients with Graves' Disease

The pathogenesis of human autoimmune diseases, including Graves' disease, remains to be elucidated. Recently, Ciampolillo et al. proposed that human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1)-related retroviruses were involved in Graves' disease. Using Southern blot analysis, they found specific integration of exogenous sequences homologous to HIV-1 gag region in genome DNA of thyrocytes and peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) of patients with Graves' disease. In order to test their hypothesis, we examined the presence or the absence of HIV-1 gag-related sequences in Japanese Graves' patients using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in addition to Southern blotting. Sets of primer pairs used in PCR were designed to cover the whole span of the HIV-1 gag region. Hybridization was performed in both relaxed and stringent conditions. Our results showed that neither Southern blot hybridization nor PCR gave positive signals in any of the samples examined from Graves' patients. This suggests that HIV-1 or its closely associated viruses are unlikely to be involved in the pathogenesis of Graves' disease in Japan.