RESUMEN
Twenty four female patients underwent thyroidectomy between June 2015 and August 2016,among whom 11 cases were pathologically diagnosed as nodular goiter (NG group),and 13 cases were diagnosed as nodular goiter complicated with Hashimoto's thyroiditis (NG + HT group);meanwhile,17 female patients with Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT group) and 20 healthy females (control group) were also recruited in the study.The expression of micro RNA(miR)-125b was evaluated by quantitative real-time PCR(qRT-PCR),the expression level of tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α) was analyzed by Western blotting in thyroid nodules and adjacent thyroid tissue in NG and NG + HT groups.Serum expression of miR123b was detected in all 4 groups.qRT-PCR results showed that the expression of miR-125b was down regulated by 0.55 fold in thyroid nodules of NG + HT group compared to NG group (t =2.873,P ＜ 0.01).The serum expression levels of miR-125b in control group,NG group,HT group and NG + HT group were 1.00,1.06,0.92 and 0.79,respectively,the expression level in NG + HT group was significantly lower than that of control group (q =4.717,P ＜ 0.01).Western blot showed that the expression of TNF-α in thyroid nodules of NG + HT group was significantly higher than those in nodules of NG group and adjacent thyroid tissues of both groups.The results suggest that miR-125b might serve as a promising diagnostic biomarker of Hashimoto's thyroiditis in patients with nodular goiter.