Evaluation of interleukins 37 and 38 and vitamin D status in the serum of women with Graves' disease

Abstract

Background Graves' disease (GD) is an autoimmune thyroid disorder and recent studies have proposed a role for interleukin (IL)‐37, IL‐38, and vitamin D (VitD) in the pathophysiology of disease. Therefore, this study investigated the expression of IL‐37, IL‐38, and VitD in the serum of GD patients and correlations of their levels with some demographic and clinical characteristics. Methods Serum IL‐37, IL‐38, and VitD levels were evaluated in 90 women with GD and 93 control women using enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay kits. Depending on therapy, six patients were newly diagnosed (ND; untreated), and 50 patients were receiving only carbimazole (CMZ), while 34 patients were also on CMZ but also received one (31 patients), two (one patient), or three (two patients) doses of radioactive iodine (RAI). Results IL‐37 levels were significantly higher in GD patients than in controls, while IL‐38 and VitD levels were significantly decreased. As indicated by the area under the curve (AUC), receiver operating characteristic curve analysis demonstrated the potential of IL‐37, IL‐38, and VitD as biomarkers to distinguish GD patients from controls (AUC = 0.953, 0.959, and 0.793, respectively). Multinomial logistic regression analysis showed that altered levels of IL‐37, IL‐38, and VitD were most likely associated with the pathogenesis of GD. IL‐37 was negatively correlated with IL‐38 and VitD, while IL‐38 and VitD were positively correlated. Conclusion Serum Il‐37 levels were upregulated in women with GD, while IL‐38 and VitD levels showed downregulated levels. The latter two were positively correlated while they showed a negative correlation with IL‐37.

B-lymphocyte-activating factor is a potential biomarker associated with susceptibility to Graves’ disease in Iraqi women

“…With regard to VitD, although there was no correlation with BAFF, current GD patients were predominantly characterized by VitD insufficiency/deficiency (< 30 ng/ mL). Therefore, low concentrations of VitD could be promoted to become a potential risk factor associated with the etio-pathogenesis of GD as recently suggested by our group [16]. Besides being an important component of the endocrine system, studies have indicated that VitD can perform various immune functions and thus may have an essential role in the pathophysiology of autoimmune diseases [41].…”

“…In addition, VitD has been shown to have a role in controlling the expression of factors involved in regulating immune function [14,15]. However, the nature of the functional relationship between BAFF and VitD has yet to be explored, and an understanding of this relationship is essential because both factors have immunomodulatory effects and are proposed to have a role in the pathophysiology of autoimmune disorders including GD [7,13,16].…”