Involvement of thymus in amiodarone-treated autoimmune myocarditis in rats

Relationship between amiodarone-induced subclinical lung toxicity and Th1/Th2 balance

“…Secondly, interpretation of the inverse relationship of Th1/Th2 and DEA concentration (r =0.480, p = 0.013) is problematic. Although it is unknown whether Th1/Th2 ratio has primary effects or DEA-mediated effects on lung toxicity, this unexpected result suggests that amiodarone may modulate thymic function [17], which in turn may influence the metabolism of amiodarone. Considering the stability of this ratio under the starting or terminating oral amiodarone, our study indicates that this ratio is patientspecific rather than amiodarone-induced.…”

“…Th1/Th2 balance is a clinically available immunologic marker and this balance reflects global immune surveillance, whereas this imbalance underlies various systemic as well as organspecific autoimmune diseases [15]. Moreover, amiodarone is considered to be immunomodulatory and effective for attenuation of rat experimental autoimmune myocarditis [16] by affecting thymic function [17]. Therefore, this study aimed clinically to test the hypothesis that amiodarone lung toxicity is mediated by immunologic mechanisms that are globally regulated by Th1/Th2 balance.…”