Fig. 1.

Increased serum and CD4⁺ T cell-derived leptin in Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT) patients. Peripheral blood was obtained from 27 HT patients and 20 healthy controls. (a) Plasma leptin levels were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) from HT patients and healthy controls. Correlation between the level of plasma leptin and body mass index (BMI) in healthy controls (b) and HT patients (c), respectively. (d) The level of leptin in culture of CD4⁺ T cells from HT patients was determined by ELISA from HT patients and healthy controls. Each data point represents an individual subject; results are expressed as mean ± standard deviation, Student's unpaired t-test.