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

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 mu g) 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<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.