{"title":"Circadian clock disruption in autoimmune thyroiditis.","authors":"Jinrong Fu, Zihao Fan, Liang He, Qian Liu, He Liu, Yushu Li, Haixia Guan","doi":"10.1530/ETJ-23-0035","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objective: </strong>A vicious cycle between circadian disruption and escalating immune responses has been described in diverse inflammatory disease. The current study aimed to explore the role of circadian clock disruption in autoimmune thyroiditis (AIT).</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Thirty AIT patients and 30 controls were enrolled and biopsied for thyroid tissues. Alterations of core clock genes expression in AIT thyroid tissues, and its association with serum and tissue inflammatory biomarkers were assessed. For animal studies, C57BL/6J mice administered with porcine thyroglobulin or PBS (as control) combined with adjuvants were sacrificed at four time points to investigate the circadian characteristic of experimental autoimmune thyroiditis (EAT). Light shift (LS) conditions were used to explore the influence of external circadian disturbance on EAT.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The expression of clock genes BMAL1 and PER2 was significantly reduced in thyroid tissues from AIT patients and was negatively correlated to levels of thyroid peroxidase antibodies. In mouse models, diurnal fluctuations of proinflammatory cytokines were demonstrated, and further exposing mice to LS led to overproduction of TNF-α, IFN-γ, and anti-thyroglobulin antibodies. Circadian analysis revealed significant oscillations of Bmal1, Clock, Per2, Cry1, Ror, and Rev-erb, which was broadly disturbed in EAT, LS, and EAT + LS groups.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>This study demonstrates that expression pattern of clock genes was disrupted in AIT thyroid, and chronic circadian disruption may aggravate the inflammatory responses in AIT. Whether maintaining a regular circadian rhythm can alleviate autoimmune thyroid diseases warrants further research.</p>","PeriodicalId":12159,"journal":{"name":"European Thyroid Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.5000,"publicationDate":"2023-08-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ftp.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pub/pmc/oa_pdf/69/07/ETJ-23-0035.PMC10503217.pdf","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"European Thyroid Journal","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1530/ETJ-23-0035","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2023/10/1 0:00:00","PubModel":"Print","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"ENDOCRINOLOGY & METABOLISM","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Objective: A vicious cycle between circadian disruption and escalating immune responses has been described in diverse inflammatory disease. The current study aimed to explore the role of circadian clock disruption in autoimmune thyroiditis (AIT).
Methods: Thirty AIT patients and 30 controls were enrolled and biopsied for thyroid tissues. Alterations of core clock genes expression in AIT thyroid tissues, and its association with serum and tissue inflammatory biomarkers were assessed. For animal studies, C57BL/6J mice administered with porcine thyroglobulin or PBS (as control) combined with adjuvants were sacrificed at four time points to investigate the circadian characteristic of experimental autoimmune thyroiditis (EAT). Light shift (LS) conditions were used to explore the influence of external circadian disturbance on EAT.
Results: The expression of clock genes BMAL1 and PER2 was significantly reduced in thyroid tissues from AIT patients and was negatively correlated to levels of thyroid peroxidase antibodies. In mouse models, diurnal fluctuations of proinflammatory cytokines were demonstrated, and further exposing mice to LS led to overproduction of TNF-α, IFN-γ, and anti-thyroglobulin antibodies. Circadian analysis revealed significant oscillations of Bmal1, Clock, Per2, Cry1, Ror, and Rev-erb, which was broadly disturbed in EAT, LS, and EAT + LS groups.
Conclusions: This study demonstrates that expression pattern of clock genes was disrupted in AIT thyroid, and chronic circadian disruption may aggravate the inflammatory responses in AIT. Whether maintaining a regular circadian rhythm can alleviate autoimmune thyroid diseases warrants further research.
期刊介绍:
The ''European Thyroid Journal'' publishes papers reporting original research in basic, translational and clinical thyroidology. Original contributions cover all aspects of the field, from molecular and cellular biology to immunology and biochemistry, from physiology to pathology, and from pediatric to adult thyroid diseases with a special focus on thyroid cancer. Readers also benefit from reviews by noted experts, which highlight especially active areas of current research. The journal will further publish formal guidelines in the field, produced and endorsed by the European Thyroid Association.