Study finds biological link between smoking and thyroid-associated ophthalmopathy

Researchers in Ireland have linked cigarette smoke extract to adipogenesis in an in vitro model of thyroid-associated ophthalmopathy, establishing a biological connection between smoking and the disorder.

"These findings may help explain how cigarette smoking has a detrimental effect in TAO (thyroid-associated ophthalmopathy) and suggests that [interleukin-1] may be an attractive therapeutic target in TAO," the authors said.

Tom J. Cawood, MD, of St. Vincent's University Hospital in Dublin, and colleagues extracted orbital tissue from 10 patients with TAO and nine control subjects. The researchers then cultured orbital fibroblasts in adipogenic media with or without cigarette smoke extract (CSE) or interleukin-1, according to the study.

The orbital fibroblasts from patients with TAO and the controls showed similar responses; the expression of intracellular adhesion molecule 1 was not affected by CSE, the authors said.

However, CSE stimulated hyaluronic acid production dose-dependently, with 5% CSE causing a 44% production increase (P = .001). Both CSE and interleukin-1 also increased adipogenesis in a dose-related, synergistic manner, and the addition of an anti-interleukin-1 antibody to the fibroblasts cultivated in both CSE and interleukin-1 reduced adipogenesis by 82% (P < .001), according to the study authors.

The study is published in the January issue of the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.