NLRC4 and hematocrit: Interestingly, Guo and his colleagues [11] confirmed that NLRC4 and its downstream cytokines (including IL-1β and IL-18) are increased in patients with HT, and immunohistochemistry found that those proteins are mainly overexpressed in the vicinity of thyroid follicular cells infiltrated by lymphocytes, and in contrast, these proteins are under expressed near follicles without lymphocyte infiltration.