Abstract:

BACKGROUND: Scientific researchers carry on the long-term unremitting research about hypothyroidism non-drug therapy, especially stem cell and tissue transplantation for treatment of hypothyroidism, which has obtained the certain results.
OBJECTIVE: To overview the research progress of stem cells and tissue transplantation for treatment of hypothyroidism.
METHODS: The author retrieved PubMed database and Wanfang database (1980/2010) for articles about stem cells transplantation and thyroid transplantation in the treatment of hypothyroidism.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Autologous thyroid tissue transplantation for irreversible hypothyroidism has a certain effect, but there are many shortcomings, such as how much thyroid tissue is required to maintain the normal function of the thyroid, which needs the evaluation based on long-term follow-up and large-sample studies. Directed differentiation of embryonic stem cells  may towards thyroid cells in vitro, but reject reaction and ethical issues are puzzle. As a kind of pluripotent stem cells, umbilical cord blood mesenchymal stem cells (UCB-MSCs) exhibit abundant source, simple collection, preservation and transport with no allograft injection or ethical issues. UCB-MSCs can differentiate into different lineage cells under specific culture conditions. UCB-MSCs are widely used to treat many diseases. Whether UCB-MSCs can be able to differentiate into thyroid cells under many specific culture conditions, and whether UCB-MSCs transplantation can be used to treat hypothyroidism, still need further studies.