Evidence for Enhanced Thy-1 (CD90) Expression in Orbital Fibroblasts of Patients with Graves Ophthalmopathy

摘要

BackgroundThy-1 is a surface protein that defines functionally distinct subpopulations of fibroblasts, with those lacking the antigen being capable of adipogenesis. Because increased fat cell development is a hallmark of the orbit in Graves' ophthalmopathy (GO), we wished to compare baseline Thy-1 expression in orbital fibroblasts from GO patients and normal individuals, and determine whether levels of the protein might be impacted by adipogenesis following peroxisome proliferator activator-γ ligation.