Derivation of Thyroid Follicular Cells From Pluripotent Stem Cells: Insights From Development and Implications for Regenerative Medicine
Year: 2021
Type: review
Abstract: Stem cell-based therapies to reconstitute in vivo organ function hold great promise for future clinical applications to a variety of diseases. Hypothyroidism resulting from congenital lack of functional thyrocytes, surgical tissue removal, or gland ablation, represents a particularly attractive endocrine disease target that may be conceivably cured by transplantation of long-lived functional thyroid progenitors or mature follicular epithelial cells, provided a source of autologous cells can be generated and a variety of technical and biological challenges can be surmounted. Here we review the emerging literature indicating that thyroid follicular epithelial cells can now be engineered in vitro from the pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) of mice, normal humans, or patients with congenital hypothyroidism. We review the in vivo embryonic development of the thyroid gland and explain how emerging discoveries in developmental biology have been utilized as a roadmap for driving PSCs, which resemble cells of the early embryo, into mature functional thyroid follicles in vitro. Finally, we discuss the bioengineering, biological, and clinical hurdles that now need to be addressed if the goals of life-long cure of hypothyroidism through cell- and/or gene-based therapies are to be attained.
Source: Frontiers in Endocrinology
Language: English
Subfield: Molecular Biology
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,950
Funders: National Science Foundation, Universität Basel, Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung, National Institutes of Health, University at Buffalo, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences
Awards: A National iPS Cell Network with Deep Phenotyping for Translational Research, G3013045623, G3204815252, An iPS cell-based model to study lung-specific mesenchyme development and disease, Defining the transcriptomic programs of transplantable regenerative thyroid progenitors derived from human pluripotent stem cells., Thyroid Follicular Cell Signaling and Development in Humans, Biomechanical determinants of lung cell fate in pluripotent stem cells, G7324015735
OpenAlex ID: W3153317755