Effects of Thyrotrophic Hormone on Thyroid Cells in Filter-Well Culture

Abstract

Sheep thyroid glands were disaggregated into a unicellular suspension by a continuous-flow trypsinization procedure. Cell populations were cultured in filter wells for 6 days on a modified Waymouth medium containing insulin, hydrocortisone and ox serum, and the effect of thyrotrophic hormone (TSH) on the iodine metabolism and glucose oxidation of the cells was studied. Under these conditions the cells retained the capacity to concentrate inorganic iodide and to form monoiodotyrosine and diiodotyrosine. In the presence of TSH added to the medium there was a 5-fold increase in the uptake of 131I into the cells; the hormone caused a 2-fold increase in incorporation of cellular 131I into iodotyrosines and stimulated the formation of thyroxine by the cultures. Concurrently, the percentage of 14CO2 produced from metabolized glucose-U-14C was doubled. TSH had no effect on the iodide concentrating capacity or glucose oxidation of cells cultured on medium containing the antithyroid drug Tapazole. When hydrocortisone was omitted from the medium, the stimulatory effect of TSH on iodine metabolism was not observed.(Endocrinology79: 721, 1966)