Study Status: Active, not recruiting
Recruit Status: Active, not recruiting
Study Type: Observational
Official Title: Study of DNA Methylation in Children and Adolescents With Autoimmune Thyroid Diseases
Brief Summary: Hashimoto Thyroiditis (HT) and Graves Disease (GD) are known to be caused by abnormal immune response against self cells and tissues. Epigenetics is a novel field of biology studying the mechanisms by which the environment interacts with the genotype to produce a variety of phenotypes through modifications to chromatin that do not directly alter the DNA sequence. A very limited number of epigenetic studies have been published in patients with HT and GD so far. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to analyze DNA methylation status in White Blood Cells (WBCs) within the promoter regions of genomic sites that have been previously identified as susceptibility loci or sites for autoimmune thyroid disease, such as the CD40, FOXP3, CTLA4, PTPN22, CD25, and TPO genes.