Notch Signaling Pathway Promotes Th17 Cell Differentiation and Participates in Thyroid Autoimmune Injury in Experimental Autoimmune Thyroiditis Mice

Figure 6

The Notch1, Hes1, RORγt, and IL-17A mRNA expression levels and correlation analyses of all genes (). One-way ANOVA analyses revealed that the mRNA expression levels of Notch1, Hes1, RORγt, and IL-17A were significantly different among the three groups (, 22.909, 17.538, and respectively, all , (a–d)). (a) Altered expression of Notch1 mRNA (NC: , EAT-A: , and EAT-B: ). EAT-B mice had significantly lower Notch1 mRNA levels than EAT-A mice (). (b) Altered expression of Hes1 mRNA (NC: , EAT-A: , and EAT-B: ). EAT-B mice had significantly decreased Hes1 mRNA expression compared to EAT-A mice (). (c) Altered expression of RORγt mRNA (NC: , EAT-A: , and EAT-B: ). Compared to EAT-A mice, the RORγt mRNA expression was significantly downregulated in EAT-B mice (). (d) Altered expression of IL-17A mRNA (NC: , EAT-A: , and EAT-B: ). IL-17A mRNA expression was significantly downregulated in EAT-B mice compared to EAT-A mice (). Correlation analyses revealed that the expression of the upstream receptor, Notch1, and the downstream target gene, Hes1, of the Notch signaling pathway positively correlated with RORγt and IL-17A mRNA expression, respectively (all , (e–j)).

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