Endocrine Abstracts

Objective: The Fas/Fas ligand (FasL) apoptotic pathway is activated in patients with autoimmune thyroid disease (AITD). It is believed that Fas and FasL expression in intrathyroidal T lymphocytes and thyrocytes is regulated in a manner resulting in thyroid cell apoptosis in Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (HT) or lymphocyte apoptosis in Graves’ disease (GD). The hypothesis that Fas and FasL may be differentially expressed on peripheral lymphocytes in patients with HT and GD ...