USU Conference Systems, International Conference on Tropical Medicine and Infectious Diseases (ICTROMI) 2017

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Increased Serum Levels of Interleukin-17 and Transforming Growth Factor-B in Patients with Graves’ Disease
Dwitya Elvira

Last modified: 2017-10-15

Abstract


Graves’ disease (GD) is an organ-specific autoimmune disease, characterized by excessive autoantibody levels due to tolerance breakdown of thyroid-specific autoantigens. To determine the role of interleukin-17 (IL-17) and transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) in GD, their serum levels in patients with GD and healthy controls were assessed. Thirty patients with hyperthyroidism, goiter, and positive thyroid-stimulating hormone receptor antibody were diagnosed with GD according to the clinical diagnostic criteria of autoimmune thyroid disease. Blood samples from 30 healthy individuals matched for age and sex were collected as a control. Serum levels of IL-17 and TGF-β were measured by ELISA. IL-17 and TGF-β levels (14.43 ± 2.15 pg/mL and 10.44 ± 3.19 pg/mL, respectively) were significantly higher in patients with GD than in controls (7.07 ± 1.45 pg/mL and 4.95 ± 1.35 pg/mL, respectively). However, no correlation between IL-17 and TGF-β was noted in patients with GD. The elevated serum level of IL-17 and TGF-β in patients with GD reflects Th1 and Th2 cell activation, which may be consistent with chronic inflammation associated with destructive processes in the thyroid gland.