title: Culture models for studying thyroid biology and disorders.
abstract: The thyroid is composed of thyroid follicles supported by extracellular matrix, capillary network, and stromal cell types such as fibroblasts. The follicles consist of thyrocytes and C cells. In this microenvironment, thyrocytes are highly integrated in their specific structural and functional polarization, but monolayer and floating cultures cannot allow thyrocytes to organize the follicles with such polarity. In contrast, three-dimensional (3-D) collagen gel culture enables thyrocytes to form 3-D follicles with normal polarity. However, these systems never reconstruct the follicles consisting of both thyrocytes and C cells. Thyroid tissue-organotypic culture retains 3-D follicles with both thyrocytes and C cells. To create more appropriate experimental models, we here characterize four culture systems above and then introduce the models for studying thyroid biology and disorders. Finally, we propose a new approach to the cell type-specific culture systems on the basis of in vivo microenvironments of various cell types.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology & Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Saga University, Nabeshima 5-1-1, Saga 849-8501, Japan.
authors.forename: Shuji
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Toda
authors.forename: Shigehisa
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Aoki
authors.forename: Kazuyoshi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Uchihashi
authors.forename: Aki
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Matsunobu
authors.forename: Mihoko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yamamoto
authors.forename: Akifumi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ootani
authors.forename: Fumio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Yamasaki
authors.forename: Eisuke
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Koike
authors.forename: Hajime
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sugihara