Cytokines and Thyroid Markers in Blood Serum in Women With Autoimmune Thyroiditis in the Course of Treatment

Abstract

The study involved 147 women aged 31-47 with newly diagnosed AIT and hypothyroidism in the dynamics of replacement therapy with levothyroxine (before and after 6 months). The control group consisted of 63 conditionally healthy women, examined once at the beginning of the study. In peripheral blood serum, the concentrations of TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-4, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, IL-17A, RANKL, OPG, TSH and TPOAb were determined.
 It was found that the initially increased values (p<0,001) of IL-1β and IL-6 remained in patients after substitu- tion therapy at higher levels than in the control group (p<0,001). The tendency to an increase in the levels of IL-10 (p=0,056) and IL-17A (p=0,067) revealed at the beginning of therapy was leveled out (p>0,05) by the end of the ob- servation. TNF-α values did not significantly differ from those of the control group both at baseline and after 6 months
 (p=0,166 and p=0,184, respectively). The concentrations of IL-4 (p=0,376 and p=0,179, respectively), IL-8 (p=0,102 and p=0,116, respectively) and OPG (p=0,988 and p=0,661, respectively) remained at the level of the results of healthy women before and after treatment. RANKL concentrations before treatment were elevated (p=0,029), having lost their significant significance after therapy (p=0,096). The initially decreased values of the OPG/RANKL index (p=0,017) also did not differ on repeated examination from the indicators of the control group (p=0,253). After 6 months of taking levo- thyroxine in women with AIT, a significant (p<0,001) decrease in initially elevated TSH levels to the values characteris- tic of the control group was recorded against the background of a significant (p<0,001) increase in the concentrations of initially elevated autoimmune antibodies (p<0,001).
 When examining women with AIT and confirmed hypothyroidism, it was found that replacement therapy with levothyroxine for 6 months did not significantly affect the production of most of the studied cytokines against the back- ground of a decrease in the initially increased TSH values to the values of the control group and a significant increase in the initially increased TPOAb.