Abstract

The etiology of autoimmune thyroid diseases (AITD) is based on genetic and nongenetic factors. Genome-wide screening and linkage analyses have identified several chromosomal regions that are linked to AITD. These are HT-1 (on chromosome 13q33) and HT-2 (chromosome 12q22) for Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT), and GD-1 (chromosome 14q31), GD-2 (chromosome 20q11.2), and GD-3 (chromosome Xq21) for Graves' disease (GD). Several genes have been proposed as susceptibility or immunoregulatory genes. Most promising genes are those of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) complex (chromosome 6), the cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated antigen-4 (CTLA-4) gene (chromosome 2), the CD40 (chromosome 20), the thyroglobulin gene (chromosome 8), and the autoimmune regulator gene (chromosome 21). This review summarizes evidence for pathogenetic involvement of several of these genes in various forms of autoimmune thyropathies. Most genetic data refer to GD, whereas less data are available for HT and thyroid-associated ophthalmopathy. Scarce data refer to AITD within the autoimmune polyglandular syndromes I and II. The realization of family studies in large samples from different populations might provide further insight in the genetic contribution to AITD. Data are also needed on the interaction among susceptibility genes. Finally, additional functional studies are warranted to clarify the possible role of allelic variants in the underlying pathogenic mechanisms of AITD.