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Introduction
Autoimmune thyroid diseases (AITDs) involve multiple factors such as heritage, environment and infection and include Graves' disease (GD) and Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT) as the most common clinical diseases (1). Autoimmune thyroid disease patients are prone to fat metabolism disorder, and the serum thyroid hormone level has a close correlation with blood lipid metabolism, insulin metabolism and inflammatory factors (2). Autoimmune thyroid illnesses are a category of disorders characterized by aberrant lymphocyte activity directed against self-tissues, which affect 2-3% of the population, with a female predominance (3). NF-κB is a key nuclear transcription factor expressed in nearly all cell and tissue types. The transcription factor NF-κB, regulates multiple aspects of innate and adaptive immune functions and serves as a pivotal mediator of the inflammatory response (4). NF-κB is a central mediator of inflammation in response to DNA damage and oxidative stress. Because of its central role in numerous cellular processes, NF-κB dysregulation is implicated in the pathology of numerous important human diseases (5). NF-κB activation causes inappropriate inflammatory responses in diseases including rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, coronavirus disease-2019 and severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 cases of pneumonia (6).
The present study investigated the differences in the expression levels of IL-17, NF-κB, IFN-γ, TNF-α, IL-2, IL-4, IL-6 and IL-10 in GD and HT, and the differences in the changes of NF-κB signaling pathway and the pathogenesis induced by different inflammatory stimuli. To investigate this and further clarify the pathogenesis of AITDs, the present study analyzed the relationships between IL-17, NF-κB, IL-6, IL-10 proteins and their mRNAs, thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), free triiodothyronine (FT3), free thyroxine (FT4), thyroid peroxidase antibody (ATPO), thyroid gland globulin (TG), thyroglobulin antibody (TGAb) and thyroid-stimulating receptor antibody (TRAb).
Materials and methods
Patients
The present study selected 82 patients with AITDs (41 with GD and 41 with HT) and 53 age-matched healthy controls who were outpatients and inpatients of Hebei General Hospital (Shijiazhuang, China) from June 2020 to November 2020. The GD group was 19-63 years old (mean, 38.49±8.81 years). The HT group was 17-66 years old (mean, 40.71±13.08 years). The controls were 15-67 years old (mean, 43.06±12.57 years). Sex and age did not significantly differ among the three groups. Basic parameters for all patients are presented in Table I.
Diagnostic criteria for HT....