Title: Determination of serum levels of interferon-γ, interleukin-4 and interleukin-18 in patients with Graves’ disease and relationship between them
Abstract: AIM: To investigate the relationship between serum interferon γ (IFN γ), interleukin 4 (IL 4) and interleukin 18 (IL 18) levels, and the immunopathogenesis of Graves’ disease (GD). METHODS: The serum levels of IFN γ, IL 4 and IL 18 were respectively measured by Enzyme linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) in three groups: 40 newly diagnosed but untreated patients, 38 cases from the above mentioned 40 patients, whose thyroid function normalized after orally taking methimazole and in 30 healthy individuals. RESULTS: The serum IFN γ, IL 4 and IL 18 levels of the 40 newly diagnosed and untreated GD patients and 38 thyroid function normalized GD patients were significantly higher than those in healthy group ( P 0.01) . Compared with the levels of IFN γ, IL 4 and IL 18 before anti thyroid drugs, the serum IL 4 level obviously increased ( P 0.01) and the serum IL 18 level decreased ( P 0.05), but no statistical difference ( P 05) in the IFN γ level was observed after orally taking methimazole. In comparison with the normal group, the ratios of serum IFN γ/IL 4 significantly increased in the newly diagnosed groups ( P 0.01), but the ratios were significantly reduced after orally taking methimazole ( P 0.01). The positive correlations between the levels of IFN γ and IL 18 in the serum of the newly diagnosed groups ( r =0.677, P 0.05), between the levels of IL 18 and TT3, TT4 after orally taking methimazole ( r =0.601, 0.535, P 0.05), and the negative correlation between the levels of IL 4 and TT3, TT4 after orally taking methimazole ( r =-0.678, -0.626, P 0.05) were obtained by correlation analysis. CONCLUSION: IFN γ, IL 4 and IL 18 may play some important roles in the immunopathogenesis of GD. At the onset, GD is predominated by Th1 cells and the immune reaction drifts towards Th2 cells after orally taking methimazole.
Publication Year: 2004
Publication Date: 2004-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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