Myo-inositol and selenium reduce the risk of developing overt hypothyroidism in patients with autoimmune thyroiditis

S.M. Ferrari, P. Fallahi, F. Di Bari, R. Vita, S. Benvenga, A. Antonelli

Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy. alessandro.antonelli@med.unipi.it

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• Immunology

OBJECTIVE: The beneficial effects obtained by myo-inositol in association with seleno-methionine in patients affected by subclinical hypothyroidism have been recently demonstrated. Here, we evaluate the immune-modulating effect of myo-inositol in association with seleno-methionine in patients with euthyroid autoimmune thyroiditis (AT).

PATIENTS AND METHODS: Twenty-one consecutive Caucasian patients with newly diagnosed euthyroid chronic AT were evaluated. All subjects were treated with myo-inositol in association with selenium (600 mg/83 mg) tablets, twice per day, for six months. A complete thyroid assessment was done before the treatment, and after six months.

RESULTS: After the treatment thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) levels significantly declined with respect to basal values, overall in patients with an initial TSH value in the high normal range (2.1<TSH<4.0), suggesting that the combined treatment can reduce the risk of a progression to hypothyroidism in subjects with autoimmune thyroid diseases (AITD). We found that after the treatment antithyroid autoantibodies levels declined. Moreover, the immune-modulatory effect was first confirmed by the fact that after the treatment CXCL10 levels declined, too.

CONCLUSIONS:  We first show an immune-modulatory effect of myo-inositol in association with seleno-methionine in patients with euthyroid AT. Further studies are needed to extend the observations in a large population, to evaluate the effect on the quality of life, and to study the mechanism of the effect on chemokines.

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