Laboratory for Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
PLoS One. 2011;6(12):e29646. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0029646. Epub 2011 Dec 27.
Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT) and Graves' disease (GD), two autoimmune thyroid diseases (AITD), occur more frequently in women than in men and show an increased incidence in the years following parturition. Persisting fetal cells could play a role in the development of these diseases.
Aim of this study was to detect and characterize fetal cells in blood of postpartum women with and without an AITD.
Eleven patients with an AITD and ten healthy volunteers, all given birth to a son maximum 5 years before analysis, and three women who never had been pregnant, were included. None of them had any other disease of the thyroid which could interfere with the results obtained.
Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) and repeated FISH were used to count the number of male fetal cells. Furthermore, the fetal cells were further characterized.
In patients with HT, 7 to 11 fetal cells per 1.000.000 maternal cells were detected, compared to 14 to 29 fetal cells in patients with GD (p=0.0061). In patients with HT, mainly fetal CD8(+) T cells were found, while in patients with GD, fetal B and CD4(+) T cells were detected. In healthy volunteers with son, 0 to 5 fetal cells were observed, which was significantly less than the number observed in patients (p<0,05). In women who never had been pregnant, no male cells were detected.
This study shows a clear association between fetal microchimeric cells and autoimmune thyroid diseases.
桥本甲状腺炎（HT）和格雷夫斯病（GD）是两种自身免疫性甲状腺疾病（AITD），在女性中比男性更常见，并且在分娩后几年的发病率增加。持续存在的胎儿细胞可能在这些疾病的发展中起作用。
本研究旨在检测和鉴定产后患有和不患有 AITD 的女性血液中的胎儿细胞。
11 名患有 AITD 的患者和 10 名健康志愿者（均在分析前 5 年内生育了儿子），以及 3 名从未怀孕的女性被纳入研究。她们均没有任何可能干扰研究结果的其他甲状腺疾病。
使用荧光原位杂交（FISH）和重复 FISH 来计数男性胎儿细胞的数量。此外，还对胎儿细胞进行了进一步的特征分析。
在 HT 患者中，每 100 万个母体细胞中检测到 7 至 11 个胎儿细胞，而在 GD 患者中检测到 14 至 29 个胎儿细胞（p=0.0061）。在 HT 患者中，主要发现胎儿 CD8（+）T 细胞，而在 GD 患者中，检测到胎儿 B 和 CD4（+）T 细胞。在有儿子的健康志愿者中，观察到 0 至 5 个胎儿细胞，明显少于患者（p<0.05）。在从未怀孕的女性中，未检测到男性细胞。
本研究表明，胎儿微嵌合细胞与自身免疫性甲状腺疾病之间存在明确的关联。
