To our surprise, though we also found MHC II was highly expressed in TFCs of HT patients, as reported in previous publications69, the expression profile of TFCs was homogenous without the inflammatory phenotype, which is different from the previous notion that thyrocytes secret chemokines and cytokines after stimulation by IL-1β and IFN-γ, which are abundantly produced in thyroid tissues of HT patients. This evidence concerns the gene IL1B and hematocrit.