DUOX2, A NEW PLAYER ON THE SCENE OF THYROID HORMONES

Introduction. Thyroid disorders have very high frequency both in Romania and around the world. Nowadays new parameters are needed to diagnose thyroid disease. Clinicians need new parameters, with rapid determination, low cost, high affinity and specificity. The aim of our study was to investigate possible relationships between thyroid hormones (TH), TSH and DUOX2, and thus a possible involvement of oxidative stress (OS) in thyroid malfunction. Material and methods. The study included 66 patients (men and women), divided on 2 lots: 33 patients with hypothyroidism and 33 patients with hyperthyroidism. The control group was represented by 33 healthy volunteers. All the participants, patients and controls, provided the informed consent to participate in the study.The parameters analyzed were serum TSH, FT4, FT3 and DUOX2. Results. Our results showed that in hypothyroidism patients we have lower levels of TH, and higher level of DUOX2. This suggest an accumulation of enzyme, unused for synthesis. In the meantime, in hyperthyroidism group we can observe a lower level of serum DUOX2, due to massive synthesis of TH. Conclusions. We can assume that DUOX2 has a crucial role in TH and, by producing hydrogen peroxide, an important role in OS. Additional studies are still needed in order to establish whether DUOX2 should be regarded as useful OS biomarker in thyroid patholog