Iodine fortification of vegetables improves human iodine nutrition: in vivo evidence for a new model of iodine prophylaxis.

Background: Iodine deficiency is the result of insufficient intake of dietary iodine and as a consequence causes multiple adverse effects. About 2 billion individuals in the world are affected by iodine deficiency. It has been found that the most effective way to control iodine deficiency is through the universal salt iodization.

Identification and functional analysis of novel dual oxidase 2 (DUOX2) mutations in children with congenital or subclinical hypothyroidism.

Context: Congenital hypothyroidism (CH) associated with goiter or a gland of normal size has been linked to dual oxidase 2 (DUOX2) mutations in the presence of iodide organification defect.

Objective: Thirty unrelated children with CH or subclinical hypothyroidism (SH) identified during infancy with a eutopic thyroid gland, coming from our Screening Centre for CH or referred from other regions of Italy, were studied with the perchlorate discharge test to identify organification defects. Eleven children with iodide organification defect were considered for the genetic analysis of TPO, DUOX2, and dual oxidase maturation factor 2 (DUOXA2) genes.

Markers of cell proliferation, apoptosis, and angiogenesis in thyroid adenomas: a comparative immunohistochemical and genetic investigation of functioning and nonfunctioning nodules.

Objective: To perform (i) an immunohistochemical investigation of cell proliferation, apoptosis, angiogenesis, and malignancy markers in 15 functioning and 15 nonfunctioning thyroid adenomas, and in normal adjacent tissue, and (ii) a genetic analysis of thyroid-stimulating hormone receptor (TSH-r), Gsalpha, and RAS mutations in the same group of adenomas, in order to describe their expression within tissues and to correlate them with the hormonal functioning.

Design: Thirty patients who underwent surgery for a solitary thyroid nodule were included in the study. Adenomas and normal adjacent tissues were evaluated by immunohistochemistry using the following antibodies: MIB-1 for proliferative activity, bcl-2 and mutant p53 for apoptosis control, vascular endothelial growth factor-A (VEGF-A) for angiogenic activity, and galectin-3 as a marker for malignancy.

Evidence for protein and mRNA TSHr expression in fibroblasts from patients with thyroid-associated ophthalmopathy (TAO) after adipocytic differentiation.

Objective: Thyroid-associated ophthalmopathy (TAO) is a chronic autoimmune disorder characterized by an increased volume of adipose/connective tissue in the human orbit.

Design: The aim of this study was to investigate the thyrotropin receptor (TSHr) expression in orbital fibroblasts from TAO patients undergoing adipocytic differentiation.

Methods: Retro-ocular tissue and skin were obtained from five patients undergoing orbital decompression surgery for TAO and placed in culture.

Gonadotrophin receptor blocking antibodies measured by the use of cell lines stably expressing human gonadotrophin receptors are not detectable in women with 46,XX premature ovarian failure.

Background: Premature ovarian failure (POF) is defined by cessation of ovarian function after puberty and before the age of 40. The syndrome is characterized by amenorrhoea, oestrogen deficiency and elevated levels of gonadotrophins. Autoimmunity has been proposed as a mechanism for some cases of destruction or malfunction of ovarian follicles.

The sodium-iodide symporter protein is always present at a low expression and confined to the cell membrane in nonfunctioning nonadenomatous nodules of toxic nodular goitre.

Objective: The sodium-iodide (Na(+)/I(-)) symporter (NIS) is known to be overexpressed in toxic adenomas and in about half of benign solitary nonfunctioning adenomas of the thyroid. In nonfunctioning adenomas, however, the protein is localized mainly in the cytoplasm and fails to reach the basolateral membrane of the follicular cell where it is found in normal thyroid tissue and in hyperfunctioning adenomas. Our aim was to study both the level of expression and the cell localization of NIS in nonfunctioning nonadenomatous nodules of toxic nodular goitre.

TSH receptor antibodies do not alter the function of gonadotropin receptors stably expressed in eukaryotic cells.

Objective: TSH receptor (TSHr) mediates the activating action of TSH on the thyroid gland resulting in the growth and proliferation of thyrocytes and thyroid hormone production. TSHr is a major autoantigen in Graves' disease (GD) and is the target for TSHr antibodies. In GD, thyroid-stimulating antibodies (TSAb) are competitive agonists of TSH.

Congenital hypothyroidism due to a new deletion in the sodium/iodide symporter protein.

Objective: Iodide transport defect (ITD) is a rare disorder characterised by an inability of the thyroid to maintain an iodide gradient across the basolateral membrane of thyroid follicular cells, that often results in congenital hypothyroidism. When present the defect is also found in the salivary glands and gastric mucosa and it has been shown to arise from abnormalities of the sodium/iodide symporter (NIS).

Patient: We describe a woman with hypothyroidism identified at the 3rd month of life.

Benign nonfunctioning thyroid adenomas are characterized by a defective targeting to cell membrane or a reduced expression of the sodium iodide symporter protein.

Nodular thyroid disease is the most common endocrine disorder. Nonfunctioning thyroid nodules are identified by their low radioiodide uptake compared with the normal extranodular tissue, which, at thyroid scintiscan, produces the typical picture of a cold thyroid nodule. Previous in vitro studies demonstrated that the majority of nonfunctioning thyroid nodules have a specific defect in iodide transport that accounts for their failure to accumulate radioactive iodide in vivo.