Evidence of humoral response to extracellular matrix proteins in Grave

M. Romano; B. Capuani; R. Bei; C. Nucci; D. Pastore; A. Andreadi; G. Sconocchia; M. Caputo; A. Modesti; D. Lauro; A. Bellia; A. Bertoli

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Endocrine Abstracts (2012) 29 P1637

ICEECE2012 Poster Presentations Thyroid (non-cancer) (188 abstracts)

Evidence of humoral response to extracellular matrix proteins in Grave's diseace and thyroid associated ophtalmopathy

M. Romano ¹ , B. Capuani ¹ , R. Bei ¹ , C. Nucci ¹ , D. Pastore ¹ , A. Andreadi ¹ , G. Sconocchia ² , M. Caputo ¹ , A. Modesti ¹ , D. Lauro ¹ , A. Bellia ¹ & A. Bertoli ¹

Err

Author affiliations

¹University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Rome, Italy; ²National Council Research (CNR), Rome, Italy.

Thyroid Associated Ophtalmopathy (TAO) is considered one of the most difficult pathologies to treat and a big threat for Graves Disease (GD) patients. This has enhanced the interest in finding a marker that can predict the onset and the prognosis of TAO. It has been demonstrated that GD is a chronic inflamed tissue that there is a remodelling of the ECM structure which elaborate inflammatory signals itself and also promotes the recruitment of cells from the bloodstream; these events can lead to ECM self-epitopes exposition and induce autoimmune phenomena.

Aim of this study, is to determine whether the occurrence of anti-ECM autoantibodies is associated with GD and TAO.

We studied 50 outpatients affected from GD (24 affected by TAO) and 40 healthy donors: sera were assayed for the presence of autoantibodies to CI, CIII, CIV, CV, LM and FN. When compared with HD control sera, GD sera resulted significantly positive to all individual anti-ECM antibodies of the IgG and IgM isotype with exception of the anti-LM IgM antibodies. Remarkably, anti-CIII autoantibodies were significantly associated with GD TAO+ patients (P=0.045).

Our results demonstrated that among the anti-ECM autoantibodies in GD patients those reacting with CIII were able to discriminate TAO⁺ from TAO⁻ GD patient cohort.

In conclusion our results suggest an involvement of anti-ECM antibodies also in GD and a possible specific role of anti-CIII IgG in TAO GD patients.

Declaration of interest: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest that could be perceived as prejudicing the impartiality of the research project.

Funding: This research did not receive any specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sector