Association of sCD40 Level in Serum with Risk for Relapse in Graves’ Disease

CD40 is a transmembrane protein that influences the pathological of autoimmune disease, like Graves’ Disease (GD). Interaction with its ligand (CD40L) on the surface of CD4+ T cells can enhance the humoral immune response. Some studies indicated that GD patients have lower apoptosis in follicular cell. This condition related to sCD40 level, which also can increase autoantibodies in GD patients. The aim of this research was to find out the role of sCD40 as a marker on GD activity. This research was a case-control study comparing 30 relapse patients and 30 non-relapse patients (remission) after treatment with an antithyroid drug was terminated. The subject of this research was serum from both relapse and remission patients, analyzed by ELISA method. Statistical analyzes was independent t-test, a two-tailed p-value less than 0.05 was considered significant. The results, we found that sCD40 levels in serum (pg/ml) increased on relapse patients (1.62± 0.17) compared to remission patients (1.46±0.14) and showed that sCD40 level in serum was significantly different between relapse and remission (p<0.001). These results demonstrated that elevated levels of sCD40 serum, associated with risk for relapse. So, sCD40 may be used as a marker of the