Induction of an Autoimmune Thyroid Disease After Subcutaneous or Oral Sodium Silicate Challenge - Original Article

Abstract
Thyroid gland is a target organ for the hazards of some drugs and toxins.  The objective of this experimental study is to demonstrate whether the subcutaneous or oral sodium silicate will induce autoimmune thyroid disease. In this study, twelve Brown Norway rats were selected from my previous study (Almogairen et al, Lupus 2009 April). At 14th week post sodium silicate or normal saline exposure, the rats were sacrificed and then thyroidectomized. Histopathological studies were done in autoantibody-positive silicate group of six rats and were compared with the equal number of rats in autoantibody-negative control group. Thyroid gland in the sodium silicate group showed epithelial follicular proliferation in 5/6 (83.33%) compared with 2/6 (33.33%) of the corresponding control saline group, p=0.12, but the absolute difference in the percentage between the two groups was 50%; thyroid gland in the subcutaneous sodium silicate sub-group showed epithelial follicular proliferation in a relatively significant number (p=0.05). When correlating the above results with Serum ANA response of the same rats, it might be concluded that sodium silicate may play a role in inducing autoimmune thyroid disease in an immunosensitive rats.