Ruggeri Rosaria Maddalena, Saitta Salvatore, Cristani Mariateresa, Giovinazzo Salvatore, Tigano Valeria, Trimarchi Francesco, Benvenga Salvatore, Gangemi Sebastiano
Unit of Endocrinology, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Messina, Italy.
Endocr J. 2014;61(4):359-63. doi: 10.1507/endocrj.ej13-0484. Epub 2014 Jan 28.
Recent studies have demonstrated that T-helper 17 lymphocytes (Th17), which produce mostly IL-17, play a major role in several autoimmune diseases commonly thought to be Th1-related, including Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT). IL-23, a member of the IL-12 cytokine family, is known to guide T cells toward the Th17 phenotype and its serum levels are increased in several autoimmune disease. Few data are available in the literature on IL-23 in HT. Using IL-23 Quantikine ELISA Kit (lower limit of detection 2.7 pg/mL) we analyzed the serum levels of IL-23 in 81 HT patients (75 females and 6 males, aged 14-70; mean age 39±17 years), and an age- and sex-matched group of 80 healthy persons. Both patients and controls did not receive any treatment. The positive detection rates of serum IL-23 were significantly higher in patients with HT: 56% of HT patients had detectable IL-23 in serum compared to 36% of healthy subjects (Chi χ² test, p=0.014). Moreover, HT patients had significantly higher serum concentrations of IL-23 (157.38 ± 17.92 pg/mL) in comparison with healthy controls (21.46 ± 5.4 pg/mL; p <0.0001). No significant correlation was found between serum levels of IL-23 and Tg-Ab or TPO-Ab levels, as well as with TSH values, in HT patients. In conclusion, serum IL-23 is increased in euthyroid and untreated HT patients, as compared to healthy subjects. Our data suggest that IL-23 would play a role in the pathogenesis of HT.
最近的研究表明，主要产生白细胞介素-17（IL-17）的辅助性T细胞17（Th17）在几种通常被认为与Th1相关的自身免疫性疾病中起主要作用，包括桥本甲状腺炎（HT）。白细胞介素-12细胞因子家族成员白细胞介素-23（IL-23）已知可引导T细胞向Th17表型分化，并且其血清水平在几种自身免疫性疾病中会升高。关于HT中IL-23的文献资料很少。我们使用IL-23 Quantikine ELISA试剂盒（检测下限为2.7 pg/mL）分析了81例HT患者（75例女性和6例男性，年龄14 - 70岁；平均年龄39±17岁）以及80名年龄和性别匹配的健康人的血清IL-23水平。患者和对照组均未接受任何治疗。HT患者血清IL-23的阳性检出率显著更高：56%的HT患者血清中可检测到IL-23，而健康受试者中这一比例为36%（卡方检验，p = 0.014）。此外，与健康对照组（21.46±5.4 pg/mL；p <0.0001）相比，HT患者血清中IL-23的浓度显著更高（157.38±17.92 pg/mL）。在HT患者中，未发现血清IL-23水平与Tg-Ab或TPO-Ab水平以及TSH值之间存在显著相关性。总之，与健康受试者相比，甲状腺功能正常且未经治疗的HT患者血清IL-23升高。我们的数据表明IL-23可能在HT的发病机制中起作用。
