Study of serum soluble fas in patients with autoimmune thyroid diseases

Abstract EN

Apoptosis was observed in thyroid tissues in Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT) but not those in Graves' disease (GD).

Fas protein is expressed in several tissues including thyroid cells.

Activation of Fas, either by antibody-induced cross linking or by interaction with its ligand, is required for induction of apoptosis.

The soluble form of Fas (sFas) inhibits Fas-Fas ligand interactions and is able to protect cells from Fas-mediated apoptosis.

This work was designed to study serum levels of sFas in patients with autoimmune thyroid diseases.

Serum levels of sFas were determined by elisa in 25 patients with autoimmune thyroid diseases (10patients with thyrotoxic Graves' disease, 6patients with GD in remission, and 9patients w*th Hashimoto's thyroiditis), 28 patients with non- autoimmune thyroid disease (6 patients with toxic nodular goitre, 13 patients with simple n°dular goitre, and 9patients with non-autoimmune hypothyroidism), and *0 normal controls.