The effects of Nigella sativa on thyroid function, serum Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) – 1, Nesfatin-1 and anthropometric features in patients with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis: a randomized controlled trial

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Abstract

Background

Hashimoto’s thyroiditis is an autoimmune disorder and the most common cause of hypothyroidism. The use of Nigella sativa, a potent herbal medicine, continues to increase worldwide as an alternative treatment of several chronic diseases including hyperlipidemia, hypertension and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). The aim of the current study was to evaluate the effects of Nigella sativa on thyroid function, serum Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) – 1, Nesfatin-1 and anthropometric features in patients with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis.

Methods

Forty patients with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, aged between 22 and 50 years old, participated in the trial and were randomly allocated into two groups of intervention and control receiving powdered Nigella sativa or placebo daily for 8 weeks. Changes in anthropometric variables, dietary intakes, thyroid status, serum VEGF and Nesfatin-1 concentrations after 8 weeks were measured.

Results

Treatment with Nigella sativa significantly reduced body weight and body mass index (BMI). Serum concentrations of thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) and anti-thyroid peroxidase (anti-TPO) antibodies decreased while serum T3 concentrations increased in Nigella sativa-treated group after 8 weeks. There was a significant reduction in serum VEGF concentrations in intervention group. None of these changes had been observed in placebo treated group. In stepwise multiple regression model, changes in waist to hip ratio (WHR) and thyroid hormones were significant predictors of changes in serum VEGF and Nesgfatin-1 values in Nigella sativa treated group ( P < 0.05).

Conclusions

Our data showed a potent beneficial effect of powdered Nigella sativa in improving thyroid status and anthropometric variables in patients with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. Moreover, Nigella sativa significantly reduced serum VEGF concentrations in these patients. Considering observed health- promoting effect of this medicinal plant in ameliorating the disease severity, it can be regarded as a useful therapeutic approach in management of Hashimoto’s thyroiditis.

Trial registration

Iranian registry of clinical trials (registration number IRCT2015021719082N4- Registered March-15-2015).

Related collections

Most cited references 56

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Immunomodulatory and therapeutic properties of the Nigella sativa L. seed.

Rany Salem (2005)

A larger number of medicinal plants and their purified constituents have been shown beneficial therapeutic potentials. Seeds of Nigella sativa, a dicotyledon of the Ranunculaceae family, have been employed for thousands of years as a spice and food preservative. The oil and seed constituents, in particular thymoquinine (TQ), have shown potential medicinal properties in traditional medicine. In view of the recent literature, this article lists and discusses different immunomodulatory and immunotherapeutic potentials for the crude oil of N. sativa seeds and its active ingredients. The published findings provide clear evidence that both the oil and its active ingredients, in particular TQ, possess reproducible anti-oxidant effects through enhancing the oxidant scavenger system, which as a consequence lead to antitoxic effects induced by several insults. The oil and TQ have shown also potent anti-inflammatory effects on several inflammation-based models including experimental encephalomyelitis, colitis, peritonitis, oedama, and arthritis through suppression of the inflammatory mediators prostaglandins and leukotriens. The oil and certain active ingredients showed beneficial immunomodulatory properties, augmenting the T cell- and natural killer cell-mediated immune responses. Most importantly, both the oil and its active ingredients expressed anti-microbial and anti-tumor properties toward different microbes and cancers. Coupling these beneficial effects with its use in folk medicine, N. sativa seed is a promising source for active ingredients that would be with potential therapeutic modalities in different clinical settings. The efficacy of the active ingredients, however, should be measured by the nature of the disease. Given their potent immunomodulatory effects, further studies are urgently required to explore bystander effects of TQ on the professional antigen presenting cells, including macrophages and dendritic cells, as well as its modulatory effects upon Th1- and Th2-mediated inflammatory immune diseases. Ultimately, results emerging from such studies will substantially improve the immunotherapeutic application of TQ in clinical settings.

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The original Whickham Survey documented the prevalence of thyroid disorders in a randomly selected sample of 2779 adults which matched the population of Great Britain in age, sex and social class. The aim of the twenty-year follow-up survey was to determine the incidence and natural history of thyroid disease in this cohort. Subjects were traced at follow-up via the Electoral Register, General Practice registers, Gateshead Family Health Services Authority register and Office of Population Censuses and Surveys. Eight hundred and twenty-five subjects (30% of the sample) had died and, in addition to death certificates, two-thirds had information from either hospital/General Practitioner notes or post-mortem reports to document morbidity prior to death. Of the 1877 known survivors, 96% participated in the follow-up study and 91% were tested for clinical, biochemical and immunological evidence of thyroid dysfunction. Outcomes in terms of morbidity and mortality were determined for over 97% of the original sample. The mean incidence (with 95% confidence intervals) of spontaneous hypothyroidism in women was 3.5/1000 survivors/year (2.8-4.5) rising to 4.1/1000 survivors/year (3.3-5.0) for all causes of hypothyroidism and in men was 0.6/1000 survivors/year (0.3-1.2). The mean incidence of hyperthyroidism in women was 0.8/1000 survivors/year (0.5-1.4) and was negligible in men. Similar incidence rates were calculated for the deceased subjects. An estimate of the probability of the development of hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism at a particular time, i.e. the hazard rate, showed an increase with age in hypothyroidism but no age relation in hyperthyroidism. The frequency of goitre decreased with age with 10% of women and 2% of men having a goitre at follow-up, as compared to 23% and 5% in the same subjects respectively at the first survey. The presence of a goitre at either survey was not associated with any clinical or biochemical evidence of thyroid dysfunction. In women, an association was found between the development of a goitre and thyroid-antibody status at follow-up, but not initially. The risk of having developed hypothyroidism at follow-up was examined with respect to risk factors identified at first survey. The odds ratios (with 95% confidence intervals) of developing hypothyroidism with (a) raised serum TSH alone were 8 (3-20) for women and 44 (19-104) for men; (b) positive anti-thyroid antibodies alone were 8 (5-15) for women and 25 (10-63) for men; (c) both raised serum TSH and positive anti-thyroid antibodies were 38 (22-65) for women and 173 (81-370) for men. A logit model indicated that increasing values of serum TSH above 2mU/l at first survey increased the probability of developing hypothyroidism which was further increased in the presence of anti-thyroid antibodies. Neither a positive family history of any form of thyroid disease nor parity of women at first survey was associated with increased risk of developing hypothyroidism. Fasting cholesterol and triglyceride levels at first survey when corrected for age showed no association with the development of hypothyroidism in women. This historical cohort study has provided incidence data for thyroid disease over a twenty-year period for a representative cross-sectional sample of the population, and has allowed the determination of the importance of prognostic risk factors for thyroid disease identified twenty years earlier.

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High performance liquid chromatographic analysis of the pharmacologically active quinones and related compounds in the oil of the black seed (Nigella sativa L.).

Omar Ghosheh, Abdulghani A. Houdi, Peter A. Crooks (1999)

An HPLC method for quantifying the putative pharmacologically active constituents: thymoquinone (TQ), dithymoquinone (DTQ), thymohydroquinone (THQ), and thymol (THY), in the oil of Nigella sativa seed is described. Extraction of the constituents from the oil was carried out using C18 PrepSep mini columns followed by quantification of the recovered constituents by HPLC on a reversed-phase muBondapak C18 analytical column, using an isocratic mobile phase of water:methanol:2-propanol (50:45:5% v/v) at a flow rate of 2 ml min(-1). UV detection was at 254 nm for TQ, DTQ, and THY, and at 294 nm for THQ. The above four compounds were separated with good resolution, reproducibility, and sensitivity under these conditions. This analytical method was used to quantify the above four constituents in a commercial sample of N. sativa seed oil, and provides a good quality control methodology for the pharmacologically active components in this widely used natural remedy.

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Author and article information

Contributors

Mahdieh Abbasalizad Farhangi: abbasalizad_m@yahoo.com

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): BMC Complement Altern Med

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): BMC Complement Altern Med

Title: BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine

Publisher: BioMed Central (London )

ISSN (Electronic): 1472-6882

Publication date (Electronic): 16 November 2016

Publication date PMC-release: 16 November 2016

Publication date Collection: 2016

Volume: 16

Electronic Location Identifier: 471

Affiliations

[1 ]Nutrition Research Center, Department of Community Nutrition, School of Nutrition, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran

[2 ]Student Research Committee, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran

[3 ]Drug Applied Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran

Article

Publisher ID: 1432

DOI: 10.1186/s12906-016-1432-2

PMC ID: 5112739

PubMed ID: 27852303

SO-VID: bac02cdf-5830-4cd8-8599-b2e5b852f00d

License:

Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ( http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.