Generation of functional thyroid from embryonic stem cells

Francesco Antonica, Dominika Figini Kasprzyk, Robert Opitz, Michelina Iacovino, Xiao-Hui Liao, Alexandra Mihaela Dumitrescu, Samuel Refetoff, Kathelijne Peremans, Mario Manto, Michael Kyba and Sabine Costagliola ()
Additional contact information
Francesco Antonica: Institute of Interdisciplinary Research in Molecular Human Biology (IRIBHM), Université Libre de Bruxelles
Dominika Figini Kasprzyk: Institute of Interdisciplinary Research in Molecular Human Biology (IRIBHM), Université Libre de Bruxelles
Robert Opitz: Institute of Interdisciplinary Research in Molecular Human Biology (IRIBHM), Université Libre de Bruxelles
Michelina Iacovino: University of Minnesota
Xiao-Hui Liao: The University of Chicago
Alexandra Mihaela Dumitrescu: The University of Chicago
Samuel Refetoff: The University of Chicago
Kathelijne Peremans: Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ghent University, B-9820 Merelbeke, Belgium
Mario Manto: FNRS, ERASME, Université Libre de Bruxelles, 808 Route de Lennik, 1070 Brussels, Belgium
Michael Kyba: University of Minnesota
Sabine Costagliola: Institute of Interdisciplinary Research in Molecular Human Biology (IRIBHM), Université Libre de Bruxelles

Nature, 2012, vol. 491, issue 7422, 66-71

Abstract: Abstract The primary function of the thyroid gland is to metabolize iodide by synthesizing thyroid hormones, which are critical regulators of growth, development and metabolism in almost all tissues. So far, research on thyroid morphogenesis has been missing an efficient stem-cell model system that allows for the in vitro recapitulation of the molecular and morphogenic events regulating thyroid follicular-cell differentiation and subsequent assembly into functional thyroid follicles. Here we report that a transient overexpression of the transcription factors NKX2-1 and PAX8 is sufficient to direct mouse embryonic stem-cell differentiation into thyroid follicular cells that organize into three-dimensional follicular structures when treated with thyrotropin. These in vitro-derived follicles showed appreciable iodide organification activity. Importantly, when grafted in vivo into athyroid mice, these follicles rescued thyroid hormone plasma levels and promoted subsequent symptomatic recovery. Thus, mouse embryonic stem cells can be induced to differentiate into thyroid follicular cells in vitro and generate functional thyroid tissue.

Date: 2012
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature11525 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:491:y:2012:i:7422:d:10.1038_nature11525

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/nature11525

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().