ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Mol. Biosci.
Sec. Micronutrient Biology
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmolb.2025.1645736
Expression levels of interleukin-17 and interferon-γ in peripheral blood and relationship with thyroid function in patients with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis
Provisionally accepted
- The Central Hospital of Wuhan, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Objective: This study aims to unveil the interleukin-17 (IL-17) and interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) levels in the peripheral blood of patients with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (HT) and their association with thyroid function. Methods: We selected 68 HT patients admitted to our hospital and 36 healthy individuals undergoing physical examinations as controls. Clinical data were collected, and serum IL-17 and IFN-γ levels were measured. The Pearson method was used to analyze the correlations between IL-17 and IFN-γ levels and thyroid function parameters. A logistic regression analysis model was employed to evaluate the influencing factors of HT. ROC curves were utilized to assess the diagnostic value of IL-17 and IFN-γ for the occurrence of HT. Results: Serum IL-17 and IFN-γ levels were higher in both HT patients with hypothyroidism and those without hypothyroidism compared to healthy controls (P < 0.05). IL-17 levels demonstrated a positive correlation with TGAb, TPOAb, and TSH among HT patients, while showing a negative correlation with FT4 (P < 0.05). Similarly, IFN-γ levels were positively related to TGAb and TPOAb (P < 0.05). IL-17 and IFN-γ levels were identified as influencing factors for the occurrence of HT (OR: 1.012, 1.028; P < 0.05). The optimal cutoff values for distinguishing HT from healthy controls were >629.77 pg/mL for IL-17, >286.04 ng/L for IFN-γ, and (>683.02 pg/mL, >252.73 ng/L) for the combination of both. The areas under the curves were 0.854 (0.771-0.936), 0.795 (0.697-0.894), and 0.903 (0.846-0.960), respectively. Conclusion: Serum IL-17 and IFN-γ levels are highly expressed in HT patients, and both are closely related to thyroid function and autoantibody levels. They possessed a certain value for the early diagnosis of HT.
Keywords: Hashimoto's thyroiditis, Interleukin-17, Interferon-gamma, Thyroid function, Thyroidautoantibodies
Received: 12 Jun 2025; Accepted: 12 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Huang, Zhang and Mao. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Mingfeng Mao, maomingfeng1427@163.com
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.