Fig 1: Rapamycin significantly ameliorates hyperthyroidism in GO mice.(A and B) Scatterplots of TRAb and TT4 levels of the 3 groups of mice (n = 8 for each group). The dashed line shows the mean + 2 SDs of the value for control mice, which was regarded as the normal range. (C) Percentage bar plots which indicated the distribution of thyroid morphologic types in the 3 groups of mice (n = 8 for each group). The thyroid morphology was divided into 3 types: normal, hyperplastic (hyper), and heterogeneous (hetero). The typical hyperplastic changes: hyperplasia of follicular cells, which were cuboidal or tall columnar cells and even led to papillary folds and protrusions in the follicular cavity. Some of the glands showed a heterogeneous morphology with a mixture of normal and hyperplastic areas. (D) Representative microscopy images for morphology of thyroid in the 3 groups of mice. The morphology of GO model mice exhibited typical hyperplastic changes. CD3+ cells in the thyroid are indicated by black arrows, indicating inflammation in the thyroid. (E) Bar plots exhibited infiltrated area of CD3+ T cells in the thyroid from the 3 groups of mice (n = 6 for each group). (F) The ratio of BW to weekly food intake of mice in the 3 groups during the experiment. The statistical differences between the GO model with control group and the rapamycin intervention group with control group were labeled at the 10th and 30th week, respectively. Values represent the mean ± SEM. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001, and NS P > 0.05, by 2-tailed, unpaired Mann-Whitney-Wilcoxon rank test for A and E and 1-way ANOVA and post-ANOVA, pairwise, 2-group comparisons with Tukey’s method for B and F.