Infection and thyroid autoimmunity: A seroepidemiologic study of TPOaAb.

Infectious agents have been implicated as triggers of autoimmunity. Prospective epidemiologic studies of infection with specific pathogens and the subsequent elevation of specific autoantibodies are difficult and costly to conduct. As a result, a solid body of evidence regarding this theoretically intriguing connection remains to be accrued.

Maternal thyroid autoantibodies during the third trimester and hearing deficits in children: an epidemiologic assessment.

Elevated maternal thyroid autoantibodies during pregnancy are linked to infertility, miscarriage, and neurodevelopmental deficits such as in cognitive function. It has not been established whether autoantibodies to thyroid peroxidase are associated with sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL). The authors tested stored third-trimester maternal serum specimens of 1,736 children for thyroid peroxidase autoantibodies (TPOaAb) by using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay technique.

The pathogenic role of anti-thyroglobulin antibody on pregnancy: evidence from an active immunization model in mice.

Background: The presence of antibodies to thyroglobulin (Tg) is associated with fetal loss even in the absence of thyroid dysfunction. The aim of this study was to examine whether active immunization with Tg could elicit anti-Tg autoantibodies and reproductive failure without interfering with thyroid function.

Methods: BALB/c mice that were immunized with human Tg in complete Freund's adjuvant (CFA) or injected with only CFA were studied for the development of antibodies to Tg, T4, dsDNA, ssDNA and cardiolipin.

Erythrocyte - endothelial cell adherence in sickle cell disease, diabetes mellitus, and falciparum malaria: adverse effects reversed with piracetam.

The erythrocytes of patients with sickle hemoglobin, diabetes, and Falciparum malaria adhere disproportionately to endothelial cells. Such pathophysiological activity compromises the microcirculation and results in clinical disease. Since Piracetam (2-oxo-1 pyrrolidine acetamide) has been shown to have a number of clinically beneficial actions on the formed elements of the blood including disengagement of adherent diabetic and sickle erythrocytes there is a rational basis for the trial of Piracetam as an adjuvant drug in SS disease and in diabetes mellitus to improve function of the microcirculation.