Miscarriage, and TNF-α and osteopontin relationship in women patients with Hashimoto's thyroiditis

Gynecol Endocrinol. 2012 Oct;28(10):830-3. doi: 10.3109/09513590.2012.683059. Epub 2012 May 7.

Abstract

Objective: Infertility and reproductive impairment can be compromised by abnormalities in both endocrine and immune system. TNF-α promotes apoptotic cell death in fetal membrane tissues and pro-inflammatory, proapoptotic, and procoagulant properties of TNF-α probably contribute to widely accepted abortogenic profile of this cytokine. The aim of this study was to assess the alteration in the levels of TSH, FT3, FT4, TNF-α, osteopontin in pregnant and controls.

Methods: Study subjects were 28 pregnant women, 28 non-pregnant women, and 28 healthy controls. All subjects underwent venous blood drawing for levels of TNF-α, osteopontin, and also hormonal assays including the levels of anti-TPO, anti-TG antibodies, TSH, FT3, FT4.

Results: Both patient and control groups are similar in terms of age. Pregnancy age in conceived patients is 23.64 ± 2.040. No statistically meaningful relation was found in correlation analysis between TNF-α and osteopontin among the groups (p = 0.963). Anti-thyroglobuline antibody and anti-microsomal antibody levels were found to be higher in patients with non-pregnant patients with Hashimoto thyroiditis than the control group (p < 0.001). No statistically meaningful relation was found in terms of TNF-α (p = 0.66) and osteopontin serum levels (p = 0.50) in patient groups with or without miscarriage history.

Conclusions: In our study, no statistically meaningful relation was found in terms of TNF-α and osteopontin serum levels in patient groups with and without miscarriage history.

MeSH terms

  • Abortion, Spontaneous / etiology*
  • Adult
  • Autoantibodies / analysis
  • Female
  • Hashimoto Disease / blood*
  • Hashimoto Disease / immunology
  • Hashimoto Disease / physiopathology*
  • Humans
  • Osteopontin / blood*
  • Pregnancy
  • Pregnancy Complications / blood*
  • Pregnancy Complications / immunology
  • Pregnancy Complications / physiopathology*
  • Prospective Studies
  • Thyroid Gland / immunology
  • Thyroid Gland / physiopathology
  • Thyroid Hormones / blood
  • Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha / blood*

Substances

  • Autoantibodies
  • Thyroid Hormones
  • Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha
  • anti-thyroglobulin
  • thyroid microsomal antibodies
  • Osteopontin