No major genes in autoimmune thyroid diseases: complex segregation and epidemiological studies in a large Tunisian pedigree

The autoimmune thyroid diseases (AITDs) include, Graves disease (GD), autoimmune hypothyroidism (AH): Hashimotos thyroiditis (HT) and atrophic autoimmune thyroiditis (AAT). These are prevalent autoimmune diseases, affecting up to 2% of the general population. A widely accepted model for the pathogenesis of AITDs suggests that each subject has a inherited background predisposition to autoimmunity, with additional environmental and hormonal factors that trigger or contribute to the development of disease.