Cytokine Production Of Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma Coexisting With Hashimoto's Thyroiditis

Background and objective:Hashimoto's thyroiditis(HT)is the most frequent autoimmune disease,and papillary thyroid carcinoma(PTC)is the most common differentiated thyroid cancinoma.Coexistence of HT and PTC in the thyroid gland is often found in the clinic,but the relationship between the two diseases is controversial.HT and PTC each have their own unique microenvironment,suggesting the need to further analysis of the interaction between these two diseases.The present study aims to understand cytokine production from cancerous tissues(CT),para-cancerous tissues(PT),and serum in patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma with or without accompanying Hashimoto's thyroiditis.Methods and results:Choosing CT,PT,serum samples from PTC patients,and using a multiplexed human cytokine assay,we detected 12 cytokines related to inflammation.Then we compared and analyzed cytokine production between these two teams:PTC with accompanying HT(HT+PTC)and without accompanying HT(HT-PTC).Thses 12 cytokines are Interleukin-1 alpha(IL-1?),Interleukin-lbeta(IL-1?),Interleukin-12p70(IL-12p70),Interleukin-8(IL-8),Interferon-inducible protein-10(IP-10),Monocyte chemoattractant protein-1(MCP-1),Macrophage in ammatory protein-lalpha(MIP-1?),Macrophage in ammatory protein-lbeta(MIP-1?),and soluble E-selectin(sE-Selectin),Interferon-alpha(IFN-?),Interferon-gamma(IFN-?),Intercellular cell adhesion molecule-1(ICAM-1).Observing the distribution and quantity of lymphocytes in the thyroid gland after HE staining of paraffin sections.Our results demonstrate that nine cytokines,including IL-1?,IL-1?,IL-12p70,IL-8,IP-10,MCP-1,MIP-1?,MIP-1?,sE-Selectin,showed significantly higher expression in para-cancerous tissues of HT+PTC compared with HT-PTC(P<0.05).In addition,para-cancerous tissues of HT+PTC patients produced more IFN-? and IFN-?compared with cancerous tissues,and production of ICAM-1 was significantly higher in CT than PT both in HT+PTC and HT-PTC patients(P<0.05).Conclusion:Autoimmune HT was found to affect the cytokine profiles in patients with PTC by stimulating secretion of Thl-type cytokines and chemokines,but further studies are needed to determine the significance of these findings and to reveal the exact mechanism of the interactions between chemokines and cytokines in the pathogenesis of HT and PTC.