Serum Antibodies against Hepatitis C Virus in Iranian Patients with Graves’ Disease

Abstract

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection has been associated with a plethora of immune and autoimmune perturbations. A variety of conditions ranging from endocrinopathies to different skin diseases has been described in HCV infection. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence and clinical significance of HCV infection in patients with graves’ disease (GD). A total of 55 patients with GD (30 women, 25 men, mean age: 35.24 ± 12.27 years) and 50 control subjects (28 women, 22 men, mean age: 33.34 ± 11.99 years) were examined. Third generation ELISA test was used for detection of antibodies to HCV in human sera, and anti-HCV seropositivity was confirmed by recombinant immunoblot assay (RIBA). All normal controls were anti-HCV negative whereas anti-HCV antibody was present in 1 patient with GD and confirmed by Western blotting. These results indicate that there was no significant difference of anti-HCV antibodies between patients and controls. In this study no relationship was found between GD and HCV infection, which imply that hepatitis C virus has not a direct causal role in the pathogenesis of GD, however, this does not rule out a “hit and run” virus induced disease.