ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Nutr.
Sec. Clinical Nutrition
This article is part of the Research TopicWomen's Health in an Interdisciplinary Dimension – Determinants of Nutritional Disorders: Volume IIView all 10 articles
Vitamin A and E Status Across the Spectrum of Hashimoto's Thyroiditis in Women : Associations with Autoimmunity and Thyroid Function
Provisionally accepted
- Foshan Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Foshan, China
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The status of fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E) across the spectrum of Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT), particularly regarding sex-specific patterns, remains incompletely characterized. This cross-sectional study aimed to evaluate the associations of these vitamins with thyroid autoimmunity and function. We analyzed 196 adults, focusing on the 136 women stratified into healthy controls (HC), euthyroid HT (E-HT), and dysfunctional HT (HT-dys). In women, serum vitamin A levels were significantly lower in both the E-HT and HT-dys groups compared to the HC group. Lipid-normalized vitamin E (α-tocopherol/[total cholesterol+triglycerides], αT/[TCH+TG]) was significantly reduced in the HT-dys group compared to both the HC and E-HT groups. Vitamin A levels showed an inverse association with thyroglobulin antibody (TgAb), while αT/(TCH+TG) was inversely associated with both thyroid peroxidase antibody (TPOAb) and TgAb. Among women with HT, αT/(TCH+TG) was inversely correlated with thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) and positively correlated with free thyroxine (FT4). An exploratory analysis indicated that this association between vitamin E and thyroid function was largely independent of TPOAb levels. This exploratory study identifies distinct associations of vitamins A and E with disease activity in women with HT, highlighting the need for longitudinal and interventional studies to further explore these relationships.
Keywords: Autoimmunity, Hashimoto's thyroiditis, Thyroid function, Vitamin A, Vitamin E, Women
Received: 09 Sep 2025; Accepted: 02 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Liang, Li, Lin and Zhenhong. 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: Qi Zhenhong
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