Artemisinin ameliorates the thyroid function and the complications in adult male hypothyroid rats via upregulating L1 cell adhesion molecule

Abstract Hypothyroidism, a common worldwide syndrome caused by in sufficient thyroid hormone secretion, affects a good deal of people at different ages. Artemisinin (ART), a well-known effective agent in the treatment of malaria, also owns anti-oxidative stress functions in various diseases. L1 cell adhesion molecule also exerts multiple protective roles in diseased systems. Hence, the aim of this study is to evaluate the role of ART in the in adult male hypothyroid rats and the underlying mechanisms. In the current study, we revealed that, ART can amelioratethe thyroid function, mitigate the depression and anxiety symptoms, attenuate the cognition impairments, improve the liver, kidney and heart functions, and inhibit the oxidative stress, whereas, theses conducive effects exerted by ART cannot be observed when L1 was silenced by L1 siRNA.These combined results indicated that ART can upregulate L1 cell adhesion molecule to ameliorate the thyroid function and the complications in adult male hypothyroid rats, laying the foundation for ART to be a novel strategy for the treatment of hypothyroidism.