Expression of membrane and soluble intercellular adhesion molecule-1 in Graves' disease

Abstract

We have investigated the in vitro expression of membrane and soluble intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) by human thyroid cells from 20 patients with Graves' disease and 5 normal subjects. Membrane ICAM-1 was not detected by flow cytometry analysis in non-cultured thyrocytes from either normal or Graves' disease tissues. It appeared on thyroid cells after a 24-h culture in monolayers and showed a regular dose-dependent increase. The same results were obtained with soluble ICAM-1 (sICAM-1) in culture media from cells cultured in monolayers, vesicles or follicles. No change was obtained with different concentrations of fetal calf serum added to the media. Coculture of Graves' disease thyrocytes with autologous peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) or intrathyroidal lymphocytes (ITL) enhanced the expression of both membrane and sICAM-1 whatever the culture model. When normal thyrocytes were cocultured with PBL, sICAM-1 increased but with ITL sICAM-1 remained unchanged. High concentrations of gamma interferon induced an increase of both membrane and sICAM-1 in the three culture models. However the increases were greater with vesicles and follicles. Only sICAM-1 levels were raised with 0·1, 1 and 10 µ retinoic acid. These results suggest that ICAM-1 appears in culture, possibly due to mechanical effects such as adherence to plates and cell-to-cell contacts. Moreover, its expression is modulated by several factors such as cytokines or retinoic acid. Further investigations are needed to establish whether ICAM-1 is really involved in the pathogenesis of Graves' disease.

Lymphocyte Homing in Xenotransplanted Human Thyroid Tissue Can Be Inhibited by LFA-1 and ICAM-1 Antibodies

“…Recent results of our group demonstrated in the nude mouse model that ICAM-1 expression on thyrocytes as well as on thyroidal endothelial cells is inducible by ITL and PBL of patients with GD (54). This has been shown in vitro previously (17,18), whereas in papillary thyroid carcinoma the expression is not affected by the presence of local lymphocytes (55). In contrast to normal human IgG, in the nude mouse model GD IgG induces a dose-dependent expression of ICAM-1 on transplanted thyrocytes (56).…”

“…ICAM-1 (CD54, Hermes-Antigen) is a member of the immunoglobulin supergene family which is expressed by many cell types including endothelial, epithelial cells, and leukocytes (16). Its expression is upregulated by cytokines (Il-1, TNF, IFN-g) (17)(18)(19)(20), and it binds to LFA-1 (CD11a/CD18-Integrin: lymphocytes, granulocytes, monocytes, and macrophages) and Mac-1 (CD11b/CD18-Integrin: myeloid cells, NK-cells).…”

“…tients with untreated GD and in treated patients at the time of recurrence (17,31). It remains controversial whether ICAM-1 is expressed on thyrocytes in GD (19,(41)(42)(43)(44)(45)(46)(47)(48)(49) or only on endothelial and antigen-presenting cells (14,(50)(51)(52)(53).…”