Miscarriage, and TNF-α and osteopontin relationship in women patients with Hashimoto's thyroiditis

Objective: Infertility and reproductive impairment can be compromised by abnormalities in both endocrine and immune system. TNF-alpha promotes apoptotic cell death in fetal membrane tissues and pro-inflammatory, proapoptotic, and procoagulant properties of TNF-alpha probably contribute to widely accepted abortogenic profile of this cytokine. The aim of this study was to assess the alteration in the levels of TSH, FT3, FT4, TNF-alpha, osteopontin in pregnant and controls. Methods: Study subjects were 28 pregnant women, 28 non-pregnant women, and 28 healthy controls. All subjects underwent venous blood drawing for levels of TNF-alpha, osteopontin, and also hormonal assays including the levels of anti-TPO, anti-TG antibodies, TSH, FT3, FT4. Results: Both patient and control groups are similar in terms of age. Pregnancy age in conceived patients is 23.64 +/- 2.040. No statistically meaningful relation was found in correlation analysis between TNF-alpha and osteopontin among the groups (p = 0.963). Anti-thyroglobuline antibody and anti-microsomal antibody levels were found to be higher in patients with non-pregnant patients with Hashimoto thyroiditis than the control group (p < 0.001). No statistically meaningful relation was found in terms of TNF-alpha (p = 0.66) and osteopontin serum levels (p = 0.50) in patient groups with or without miscarriage history. Conclusions: In our study, no statistically meaningful relation was found in terms of TNF-alpha and osteopontin serum levels in patient groups with and without miscarriage history.