Sepsis leads to thyroid impairment and dysfunction in rat model.

Sepsis was a systemic response to a local infection. Apoptosis was observed in the experimental sepsis. In this study, cecal ligation and puncture (CLP)-induced sepsis was established in rats. We found that sepsis decreased thyroid hormone levels, including triiodothyronine (T3), thyroxine (T4), free T3 (fT3), and free T4 (fT4). Besides, we detected the increasing expression level of Caspase-3 and increasing ratio of TUNEL positive cells in the thyroid after sepsis. Furthermore, a series of pathological ultrastructural changes were observed in thyroid follicular epithelial cells by CLP-induced sepsis. This study established a sepsis animal model and provided the cellular and molecular basis for decoding the pathological mechanism in thyroid with the occurrence of sepsis.