We have characterized thyroid microsomal antigen (M-Ag) prepared from Graves' and normal thyroid tissues using 100,000×g thyroid membrane fractions in enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays with pooled polyclonal human sera containing high titers of antibody to M-Ag. A ten-fold parallel increase in dose inhibition potencies occurred with M-Ag preparations from Graves' as compared to normal thyroid tissue. The M-Ag preparations wre further evaluated by SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and proteins visualized by Western blot using high titer microsomal antibody (M-Ab) sera (n = 2) devoid of thyroglobulin antibody activity. We found discrete 100 kD relative molecular mass bands in Graves' M-Ag preparations (n = 3) under nonreducing conditions which were only poorly resolved in normal thyroid M-Ag (n = 3) using up to 100μg of protein per lane.The cellular localization of M-Ag was then investigated using the avidin-biotin-peroxidase technique on frozen sections of Graves' and normal human thyroid tissue with a murine monoclonal antibody reactive with human M-Ag and thyroid peroxidase. M-Ag reactivity was similar in both Graves' and normal thyroid tissues and localized to the entire follicular cell membrane with more intense staining occurring on the inner follicular cell membrane. This was in contrast to follicular cell staining for HLA-DR antigen which was present in 6 of 10 Graves' tissues examined and absent in normal thyroid tissue. Staining for HLA-DR antigen also occurred on the follicular cell surface membrane with occasional enhancement at the thyrocytc apical cell membrane.We conclude: a) M-Ag is induced approximately 10—fold in Graves' thyroid tissue and can be objectively quantified in ELISA systems, 2) There were no detectable qualitative differences between M-Ag from Graves' and normal thyroid tissue, and 3) HLA-DR antigen was detected on 60% Graves' tissues in a cell surface distribution similar to that observed for M-Ag in both Graves' and normal tissues.