Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: B lymphocyte activating factor (BAFF), a member of the tumour necrosis factor family, is essential for B cell activation, differentiation and survival. It promotes autoantibody production and as Graves’ disease is caused by thyroid stimulating autoantibodies, it is an excellent functional candidate gene. Indeed, elevated serum BAFF levels have been found in patients with several autoimmune diseases, including Graves’ disease (GD). The T al...

Introduction: B lymphocyte activating factor (BAFF), a member of the tumour necrosis factor family, is essential for B cell activation, differentiation and survival. It promotes autoantibody production and as Graves’ disease is caused by thyroid stimulating autoantibodies, it is an excellent functional candidate gene. Indeed, elevated serum BAFF levels have been found in patients with several autoimmune diseases, including Graves’ disease (GD). The T al...

Background: Autoimmune Addison disease (AAD) is a rare but highly heritable endocrinopathy. The BACH2 protein plays a crucial role in T lymphocyte maturation, and in particular in regulatory T cell formation, and allelic variation in its gene has been associated with autoimmune conditions such as type 1 diabetes, autoimmune thyroid disease and vitiligo. Its role in susceptibility to autoimmune Addison’s disease (AAD) has not been investigated.Aim: T...

Background: The autoimmune thyroid diseases, primary autoimmune hypothyroidism (AH) and Graves’ hyperthyroidism (GD), represent the most prevalent endocrine disorders. Although clinically distinct, they share several genetic susceptibility loci, many of which remain unidentified.TIGIT (T cell immunoreceptor with immunoglobulin and ITIM domains), expressed on the surface of T-cells, interacts with CD-155 on dendritic cells to form an alternative cost...

Due to the rarity of autoimmune Addison’s disease (AAD), it has proved difficult to gather large case cohorts for genetic studies. Linkage analysis offers a powerful means of identifying genetic susceptibility loci but has never been applied to AAD because of the scarcity of families containing ≥2 affected individuals. We collected DNA from 23 such families to perform the first linkage study in AAD.We genotyped 117 samples (50 cases, 67 contro...