Journal
BRAZILIAN JOURNAL OF MEDICAL AND BIOLOGICAL RESEARCH
Volume 45, Issue 12, Pages 1202-1208Publisher
ASSOC BRAS DIVULG CIENTIFICA
DOI: 10.1590/S0100-879X2012007500168
Keywords
Graves' disease; Hashimoto's thyroiditis; Interleukin-17; Interferon-gamma
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Funding
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [30871185, 81070627]
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Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT) is considered to be mediated mainly by Th1 cells, but it is not known whether Graves' disease (GD) is associated with Th1 or Th2 predominance. Th17 cells, a novel subset of Th cells, play a crucial role in the pathogenesis of various autoimmune disorders. In the present study, the expression of IL-17A and IFN-gamma was investigated in patients with HT or GD. mRNA expression of IL-17A and IFN-gamma in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from 43 patients with autoimmune thyroid disease (AITD) and in thyroid tissues from 40 AITD patients were measured by real-time quantitative PCR. The protein expression of IL-17A and IL-23p19 was examined by immunohistochemistry in thyroid tissues from 28 AITD patients. The mRNA levels of IL-17A and IFN-gamma were higher in both PBMC and thyroid tissues of HT patients than in controls (mRNA levels are reported as the cytokine/beta-actin ratio: IL-17 = 13.58- and 2.88-fold change and IFN-gamma = 16.54- and 2.74-fold change, respectively, P < 0.05). Also, the mRNA levels of IL-17A and IFN-gamma did not differ significantly in GD patients (P > 0.05). The high protein expression of IL-17A (IOD = 15.17 +/- 4.8) and IL-23p19 (IOD = 16.84 +/- 7.87) in HT was confirmed by immunohistochemistry (P < 0.05). The similar high levels of IL-17A and IFN-gamma suggest a mixed response of Th17 and Th1 in HT, where both cells may play important roles in the destruction procedure by cell-mediated cytotoxicity.
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