Endocrine Abstracts

Despite an accurate management, in about 20% of hypothyroid patients showing an increased need for oral levothyroxine (LT4), the leading cause of treatment refractoriness remains unknown. Some studies hypothesized the relationship between gut microbiota composition and thyroid homeostasis, but the possible involvement of microflora in the efficacy of LT4 treatment has not been evaluated yet, and this represents the aim of our study. We examined the faecal microflora compositio...

Recent reports have proven gastric pH as key for both dissolution and bioavailability of oral thyroxine. This is clinically relevant in patients with gastric disorders to tailor an individualized treatment. In vitro, the softgel preparation of thyroxine possess a superior dissolution profile at increasing pH than the tablet T4. No data are available analyzing the correlation between the gastric pH and the softgel T4 performance in vivo and the present study i...

Objective: Intestinal barrier (IB) is one of the wider human body surface, whose integrity allows the uptake of nutrients also preserving from the entrance of harmful compounds. An increased permeability of IB, known as “leaky gut”, has been demonstrated in patients with intestinal inflammatory and/or autoimmune disorders as well as in patients with autoimmune diseases involving organs far from the intestine, as in patients with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (HT). The...

Objectives: Human CD3+CD20+ T cells represents 3-5% of circulating T cells and may be detected in all lymphatic organs and in the cerebrospinal fluid. In healthy individuals CD3+CD20+ T cells have been shown to produce higher levels of IL-17A and/or IFN-γ than those of CD3+CD20- T cells. Some reports described the role of CD3+CD20+ T cells in autoimmune disorders such as multiple scler...

Objectives: Variations of gut microbiota composition have been described in patients with different thyroid disorders. The site of oral levothyroxine (T4) absorption is represented by the small intestine and it has been demonstrated that some bacterial strains possess enzymatic activity that may affect iodothyronine deconjugation, process probably involved in thyroid hormone enterohepatic recycling. The relationship between gut microflora composition and oral T4 requirement ha...

The presence and the role of CD20+ T cells in humans has been described in autoimmune disorders such as multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis. In healthy subjects, CD3+CD20+ T cells are detected in all lymphatic organs and in the cerebrospinal fluid and represent about 5% of circulating T cells. Some reports described their production of high levels of IL-17A and/or IFN-γ. This study was aimed at investigating the behavior of CD3<sup...

Hypothyroid patients with gastric disorders require a higher dose of oral thyroxine (T4) to reach target serum TSH. In vitro evidence supports the notion that the variations of gastric pH may also interfere with T4 dissolution profile. The present study is aimed at confirming in vivo the supposed correlation between the gastric pH, directly measured during endoscopy, and the therapeutic dose of thyroxine using a controlled treatment schedule. A total of 61 tablet T4-t...

Background: The association of autoimmune thyroiditis (AIT) with nonendocrine autoimmune disorders has been reputed for long time as a variant of type 2 polyglandular autoimmune syndrome (PAS2). Nowadays, it is framed in the picture of polyautoimmunity and its relevance is owed to its prevalence, far higher than PAS 2, and its expanding galaxy. Systematic studies on this field are rather scanty and mostly based only on the presence of circulating antibodies. Our study has been...