Serum Interleukin-8 Levels in Thyroid Diseases

Abstract

Cytokines are likely to play an important role in auto¬ immune thyroid disease. These molecules are produced by both inflammatory cells and thyroid follicular cells and may affect the latter directly including expression of major histocompatibility complex class II molecules and adhesion mol¬ ecules (1-9).Interleukin-8 (IL-8) is a cytokine with neutrophil chemotactic/activating and T-cell chemotactic activity both in vivo and in vitro (10,11)· It is synthesized as a 99-amino acid pre¬ cursor and secreted as a 72-amino acid peptide after succes¬ sive removal of aminoterminal residues. Its known actions include chemotaxis and activation of neutrophils, expression of surface adhesion molecules on neutrophils, angiogenesis (12) and mitogenesis of epidermal (13), melanoma (14), and vascular smooth muscle cells (15). IL-8 has not been investi¬ gated in depth in autoimmune thyroid diseases in humans. We quantitated IL-8 levels in patients with Graves' disease, toxic nodular goiter, and Hashimoto's thyroiditis.We studied 30 thyrotoxic patients (TP) all with elevated free thyroxine (FT4) and suppressed thyrotropin (TSH) lev¬ els (9 males and 21 females; mean age 42.3 ± 11.1; range, 24-65), 20 of whom (6 males and 14 females) had Graves' disease (GD) and 10 toxic nodular goiter (TNG). Patients with GD were identified by the presence of one or more of the following: diffuse uptake of thyroid with 99-technetium scanning, positive thyroid antibodies, and signs of thyroid eye disease. We also studied 16 patients with Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT), (4 males and 12 females; mean age 52.0 ± 13.8; range, 19-77), all with elevated TSH (> 9 µ /mL) and positive thyroid antibodies. Fifteen normal individuals of similar age and gender were used as controls (C).In all patients and controls, IL-8 levels were measured, for which a competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was used. This assay measures the total amount of free and bound cytokine in serum.The lower limit of detection was 10 pg/mL. All results are expressed as mean ± SD. Data were compared with Stu¬ dent's unpaired t test and correlations between variables within groups were tested by Pearson's correlation test, < 0.05 was accepted as significant.Our results indicated that although mean levels of IL-8 were higher in TP in comparison with C (50.97 ± 42.14 vs. 37.17 ± 41.63) this difference was not statistically significant, most probably due to the high SD. A positive correlation was found between mean IL-8 values and FT4 (p = 0.005). No dif¬ ferences were found in IL-8 levels between GD and TNG subgroups (49.91 ± 41.3 vs. 53.09 ± 45.94), as well as be¬ tween these subgroups and C (49.91 ± 41.3 vs. 37.17 ± 41.63 and 53.09 ± 45.94 vs. 37.17 ± 41.63). No differences were found between TP and HT groups (50.97 ± 42.14 vs. 40.20 ± 29.87). Also, no differences were quantitated concerning IL-8 levels between male and female patients when compared with C (46.08 ± 20.28 vs. 37.17 ± 41.63 and 53.06 ± 48.95 vs. 37.17 ± 41.63, respectively). As far as the HT patients are concerned, w...

Clinical Utility of Serum Interleukin-8 and Interferon-Alpha in Thyroid Diseases

“…Bossowski and Urban and Siddiqi et al have also observed significantly elevated levels of IL-8 in patients with Graves' disease and nodular goiter as compared to the respective healthy control groups [31, 32]. In contrast to these of studies, Krassas and colleagues found that IL-8 levels were not elevated in Graves' disease, toxic nodular goiter and Hashimoto's thyroiditis [33]. A study by Lee et al has shown increased levels of cytokines including IL-8 and IL-10 in patients who frequently developed euthyroid sick syndromes followed by allogeneic bone marrow transplantation [34].…”

Positive effects of thyroid replacement therapy on assisted reproductive technology outcomes in women with subclinical hypothyroidism with positive thyroid peroxidase autoantibodies

“…It is well established that overt hypothyroidism negatively affects reproduction and pregnancy outcomes via increased miscarriage rates, menstrual irregularities, subfertility, ovulation failure, and altered ovulatory function ( 15 , 16 ). However, it is unclear to what extent SCl hypoT affects pregnancy outcomes.…”

“…However, it is unclear to what extent SCl hypoT affects pregnancy outcomes. Although this subject remains controversial, some studies have shown that pregnant patients with SCl hypoT have a significantly higher risk of placental abruption, preterm birth, stillbirths, and miscarriage ( 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 ). The treatment of SCl hypoT in pregnant patients has been found to positively impact miscarriage and live birth rates for those undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF) and is associated with a decrease in obstetric and neonatal complications ( 19 ).…”