自身免疫性甲状腺病主要包括桥本氏甲状腺炎（HT）和Graves病（GD）,淋巴细胞在甲状腺组织局部浸润是它们共有的特征，T淋巴细胞亚群Th1/Th2细胞失衡是HT/GD发病的重要机制。我们前期的研究发现，子宫球蛋白相关蛋白1（UGRP1）基因与GD发病密切相关，UGRP1蛋白在大多数HT患者甲状腺组织表达阳性，在非自身免疫性甲状腺组织中表达阴性；同时在24％左右的GD患者中表达阳性。HT患者Fas阳性的甲状腺细胞UGRP1亦阳性表达。在我们这些发现的基础上，进一步明确UGRP1是否可以作为分子标志，将Graves病分为两种不同的亚型，即UGRP1阳性的GD和UGRP1阴性的GD，前者发病机制不同于"典型"的GD，而类似于HT，其转归倾向于甲状腺功能减退。并且明确自身免疫性甲状腺病甲状腺组织UGRP1阳性表达是否与浸润的淋巴细胞亚群Th1/Th2细胞失衡有关。

Graves disease(GD) and Hashimoto's thyroiditis(HT) are two major clinical forms of Autoimmune thyroid disease(AITD). Both are characterized by the presence of lymphocytes infiltration in the tissue of thyroid.The imbalance of lymphocyte subsets between Th1 and Th2 is an important mechanism for the pathogenesis of AITD. Our previous studies find that Uteroglobin-related protein 1(UGRP1) gene is closely related to the incidence of GD.UGRP1 protein is significantly positive expression in most thyroid tissue from HT patients and in about 24% of GD. However, the UGRP1 protein is negative in non-autoimmune thyroid disease.UGRP1 protein is present in HT thyrocytes which is concomitant expression highly with Fas molecules. On the basis of these findings, whether UGRP1 can be recognized as molecular marker to divide GD into two different subtypes is required to be further clarified. One is the UGRP1 positive subtype and the other is negative. The former GD subtype is similar to HT which is prone to overt hypothyroidism. We want to elucidate whether UGRP1 positive-expression in tissue of AITD is correlated with the imbalance between Th1 and Th2 subsets.