Iodide-Induced Chemokines and Genes Related to Immunological Function in Cultured Human Thyroid Follicles in the Presence of Thyrotropin

Background: It is well known that iodide exacerbates thyroid function in subclinical hypothyroid patients with autoimmune thyroiditis. To investigate the immunological mechanism of iodine-induced thyroid dysfunction, we studied the effect of iodide in cultured human thyroid follicles, which respond to physiological concentrations of human thyrotropin (TSH) (0.3–10 μU/mL) and maintain the Wolff–Chaikoff effect. Materials and Methods: Thyroid follicles obtained from Graves' patients at subtotal thyroidectomy were precultured in medium containing 0.5% fetal calf serum and 10−8 M iodide for 5 days, and then cultured with the medium containing bovine TSH (30 μU/mL) and low (10−8M) or high (10−5M) concentrations of iodide. After 3–72 hours of culture, the effect of iodide on thyroid cell mRNA expression was analyzed by microarray and reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction. Results: After 48 hours of culture, iodide nearly doubled the mRNA expression levels of the immunity-associated genes (intercellula...