Abstract:

BACKGROUND: Thyrotrophin, insulin or insulin-like growth factor play important roles in development, differentiation, heterogenic expression and function production of thyroid cells. Thus, this study simulated thyroid in vivo embryogenesis, and gradually added above-mentioned stimulating factor to further induce bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs).
OBJECTIVE: To investigate the feasibility of differentiation of the adult BMSCs into thyroid cells under specific circumstances in vitro.
METHODS: BMSCs were isolated by the density gradient method. BMSCs were induced with thyrotrophin and insulin. Morphological changes were observed by the inverted optical microscope and transmission electron microscopy. Immune fluorescence detection method was used to differentiate adult BMSCs.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: On day 3 following culture in the induction group, BMSC morphology changed from spindle to round, ellipse or triangle, grew irregularly, with clear boundary. On day 8, adherent embryo became flat. On day 7, differentiated cells expressed thyroid cell gene TSHr. On day 9, differentiated cell markers TTF-1 expression was detected in thyroid cells. Results suggested that BMSCs can be induced to differentiate into thyroid cells in vitro and are ideal seed cells in the study of tissue engineering treatment of thyroid diseases.