Abstract
Cytokines are informatory and regulatory peptides and glycoproteins that are ubiquitous in the organism. Their efřects are autocrine and paracrine above all.
They form a cytokine network with complex positive and negative linkages. They take part in various physiological and pathological processes.
A huge interest is devoted to the cytokine role in tumorigeneis. There is a lot of ankles about the involvement of panicularcytokines in the etiology and pathotµnesis of benign and malign thyroid gland tumors.
Epidermal growth factor (EGF), insulin-like growth factor (1GF), fibroblast growth factor (FGF), transforming growth factor (TGF), hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) were mainly studied. All of these growth factors were found to support a thyroid follicular cells dediffercntiation (except of IGF) and proliferation (except of TGF beta-1 and VEGF).
The vascular expansion is closely connected with the expansion of the thyroid tissue. bFGF and VEGF play an imponant role in angiogenesis.