Serum levels of interleukin-12 in Graves' disease and their dynamic changes after surgery

• Published in: Surgery today (Tokyo, Japan) Vol. 35; no. 12; pp. 1016 - 1020
• Main Authors: Murakami, Saburo, Okubo, Katsuhiko, Tsuji, Yoshitaka, Sakata, Hideto, Kikuchi, Masataka, Takahashi, Takehiro, Kato, Takaharu, Hirayama, Renzo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Japan 01.12.2005
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Analysis of Variance; Case-Control Studies; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; Female; Graves Disease - blood; Graves Disease - surgery; Humans; Interleukin-12 - blood; Male; Middle Aged; Statistics, Nonparametric
• ISSN: 0941-1291; 1436-2813
• DOI: 10.1007/s00595-005-3083-7

To investigate the role of interleukin-12 (IL-12) in Graves' disease, we measured the pre- and postoperative levels of serum IL-12 in patients undergoing surgery for Graves' disease. The subjects of this study were 73 patients with Graves' disease, admitted for surgical treatment after taking antithyroid drugs for various durations. We collected blood from 11 of these patients, 1, 3, and 6 months postoperatively, to measure the serum IL-12 levels using a Human IL-12 +p40 Immunoassay Kit. The preoperative levels of serum IL-12 were higher in patients with Graves' disease than in healthy controls. Based on the preoperative data, there was a significant relationship between the levels of serum IL-12 and free T3. An analysis of the postoperative time course of these 11 patients showed that the levels of serum IL-12 decreased gradually from 1 month to 6 months, postoperatively. There was also a significant correlation between the levels of serum IL-12 and soluble IL-2R, and a significant negative correlation between the levels of serum IL-12 and thyroid-stimulating hormone receptor antibody. Measurement of the levels of serum IL-12 may be a valuable immunological marker in the time course of treatment for Graves' disease.