Correlation between Serum Levels of ICAM-1 and Serum Levels of Thyroid Hormones, TSH / 대한내분비학회지

ABSTRACT

Lymphocytic infiltration of the thyroid gland is a hallmark of the human thyroid autoimmune disease. Enhanced expression of immunoglobulin and adhesion molecules are consistently found in patients with autoimmune thyroid diseases. And cytokines are implicated in enhancing the expression of adhesion molecules.It has been suggested that adhesion-molecule expression within thyroid glands mediates lymphocyte homing events to the target of the autoimmune process. The expression of ICAM-1 was shown to be up-regulated on thyroidal perifollicular endothelial cells and thyrocytes in autoimmune thyroid diseases both in vitro and in vivo.Therfore, we investigated the correlation between thyroid hormone, TSH receptor antibodies, Interleukin-6 and soluble ICAM-1 in patients with Graves' disease before and 2 months after treatment with prophylthiouracil(PTU).Serum concentrations of soluble intercellular adhesion molecule-1(sICAM-1), T_3, T_4, TSH-receptor antibodies(TSH-R-Ab) and Interleukin-6(IL-6) of peripheral blood monocytes were measured in patients with Graves' disease.Serum levels of sICAM-1 were elevated in patients with Graves' disease before treatment with PTU, but serum levels of sICAM-1 did not correlate with the serum concentration of thyroid hormone and TSH-R-Ab before and after treatment. In addition, no correlation between serum levels of sICAM-1 and IL-6 of peripheral blood monocyte.We conclude that although the elevated serum levels of sICAM-1 may contribute to the autoimmune process in Graves' disease, we need more future studies for the role of sICAM-1 and correlation between adhesion molecule and thyroid hormone or cytokines in patients with Graves' disease.