Searchable abstracts of presentations at key conferences in endocrinology
Endocrine Abstracts (2015) 37 EP1071 | DOI: 10.1530/endoabs.37.EP1071

ECE2015 Eposter Presentations Thyroid (non-cancer) (160 abstracts)

Could thyroid replacement therapy not be enough to reduce oxidative stress in hypothyroid patients with Down' syndrome? A cohort study

Emanuele Rocco Villani 1 , Graziano Onder 1 , Angelo Carfì 1 , Francesco Pagano 1 , Sebastiano Raimondo 2 , Chantal Di Segni 2 , Andrea Silvestrini 3 , Elisabetta Meucci 3 & Antonio Mancini 1


1Department of Internal Medicine and Geriatrics, Catholic University of Sacred Heart, Rome, Italy; 2Division of Endocrinology, Department of Medical Sciences, Catholic University of Sacred Heart, Rome, Italy; 3Institute of Biochemistry and Clinical Biochemistry, University of Sacred Heart, Rome, Italy.


Hypothyroidism and autoimmune thyroiditis are common in patients with Down’ syndrome (DS), leading to common prescription of thyroid replacement therapy. On the other hand, thyroid function is involved in oxidative stress (OS) mechanisms. DS is a well-known high OS condition because several genes involved in OS mechanisms map on chromosome 21 and coenzyme Q10, lipophilic antioxidant, could be more correlated with hypothyroidism than TSH in DS people. To investigate relationships among thyroid function, OS and replacement therapy, we enrolled 26 adults with DS (ten males) aged 18–64. Fourteen were under thyroid replacement therapy with levothyroxine. A fasting blood plasma sample was collected at 0900 h and TSH (NR 0.30–2.80 μUI/l), fT4 levels and total antioxidant capacity (TAC) were evaluated. TAC was evaluated with colorimetric method, using the system metamyoglobin–H2O2 and the chromogen ABTS; the latency time (LAG, s) in the appearance of ABTS radical proportional to antioxidant content of the system. Patients were classified in two groups: i) patients under thyroid replacement therapy (14/26) and ii) patients without replacement therapy (12/26). Among the first group, 57% (8/14) of patients were euthyroid (mean±S.D. TSH 3.01±3.27), whilst 42% (5/12) were hypothyroid in the second group (mean TSH 2.39±1.09). TAC was lower in the first group (62.50±14.64) than in the second group (74.17±12.40), regardless of TSH level. These data confirm hypothyroidism as a high OS condition and suggest that replacement therapy alone could not be enough to establish normal TAC levels in hypothyroid patients. Further studies will be necessary to evaluate whether a supplementation with antioxidants should be considered in DS hypothyroid patients, due to the competence of two causes of high oxidative stress in those patients. It could also be necessary to evaluate whether non-DS hypothyroid patients under thyroid replacement therapy show higher OS levels.

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