Endocrine Abstracts

Objectives: The interaction between genetic predisposing factors and environmental triggers is crucial for the development of HT. In last decades, the steady rise in frequency of HT in developed countries pointed to a strong influence of changing environmental factors, including increased pollution. Air pollutants, like dioxins and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, are ligands of the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR). This ligand-activated transcription factor, involved in pollu...

Background: The expression of thyroid-specific genes [thyroglobulin (Tg) and sodium iodide symporter (NIS)] is modulated by several cytokines (IL-1, IFNγ, TGF-ß) and it is down-regulated in Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (HT). Also, lymphocytic infiltration and inflammation in HT results in intra-thyroidal accumulation of hyaluronan (HA). During inflammation, HA can be degraded into small fragments, able to up-regulate pro-inflammatory genes by stimulating the toll-li...