Kajiyama Yusuke, Kikuchi Kentaro, Takai Atsuko, Hosoya Naomi, Hoshino Hiromi, Hino Kunihiko, Miyakawa Hiroshi
Fourth Department of Internal Medicine, Teikyo University Mizonokuchi Hospital, 3-8-3 Mizonokuchi, Kawasaki-shi, Kanagawa 213-8507, Japan.
Clin Dev Immunol. 2012;2012:247973. doi: 10.1155/2012/247973. Epub 2012 Feb 27.
Chronic hepatitis C (CHC) patients frequently suffer from thyroid disorders during interferon therapy. However, the mechanism remains unclear. In this study, we investigated the association between serum B-cell-activating factor belonging to the TNF family (BAFF) levels and the presence of antithyroid peroxidase antibody (anti-TPO) in CHC patients treated with pegylated interferon alpha and ribavirin combination therapy. Six months after the therapy, anti-TPO antibody was detected in 10 (males, 1; females, 9) of 50 patients. The mean age of these patients was higher than that of the anti-TPO-negative patients (61 yr versus 55 yr). Before treatment, the serum BAFF levels of the anti-TPO-positive patients were higher than those of the anti-TPO-negative patients. After starting therapy, the serum BAFF levels of both the anti-TPO-positive and -negative patient groups were elevated. Our findings suggest that the serum BAFF concentration before therapy can predict the risk of thyroid autoimmunity in elderly female patients with CHC.
慢性丙型肝炎（CHC）患者在干扰素治疗期间常出现甲状腺疾病。然而，其机制仍不清楚。在本研究中，我们调查了接受聚乙二醇化干扰素α和利巴韦林联合治疗的CHC患者血清中属于肿瘤坏死因子家族的B细胞激活因子（BAFF）水平与抗甲状腺过氧化物酶抗体（抗TPO）存在之间的关联。治疗6个月后，50例患者中有10例（男性1例，女性9例）检测到抗TPO抗体。这些患者的平均年龄高于抗TPO阴性患者（61岁对55岁）。治疗前，抗TPO阳性患者的血清BAFF水平高于抗TPO阴性患者。开始治疗后，抗TPO阳性和阴性患者组的血清BAFF水平均升高。我们的研究结果表明，治疗前血清BAFF浓度可预测老年女性CHC患者甲状腺自身免疫的风险。
