Premium
The expression of thyroid hormone transporters in the human fetal cerebral cortex during early development and in N‐Tera‐2 neurodifferentiation
Author(s) -
Chan S.Y.,
MartínSantos A.,
Loubière L. S.,
González A. M.,
Stieger B.,
Logan A.,
McCabe C. J.,
Franklyn J. A.,
Kilby M. D.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
the journal of physiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.802
H-Index - 240
eISSN - 1469-7793
pISSN - 0022-3751
DOI - 10.1113/jphysiol.2011.207290
Subject(s) - fetus , endocrinology , biology , cerebral cortex , medicine , hormone , monocarboxylate transporter , thyroid , transporter , triiodothyronine , human brain , neuroscience , pregnancy , biochemistry , gene , genetics
Non‐technical summary Thyroid hormones are important in brain development and they enter cells through thyroid hormone transporters at the cell membrane. Thyroid hormone transporters are thought to play an important role since gene defects in one of these transporters, MCT8, have been associated with severe mental retardation. This paper describes the expression of a range of thyroid hormone transporters in the human fetal brain during early pregnancy, and suggests that these transporters could regulate the supply of thyroid hormones into brain cells from very early in development. Surprisingly, the reduction of thyroid hormones and MCT8 expression do not affect the differentiation of an unspecialised cell to a specialised human nerve cell in the brain. Thyroid hormones and MCT8 are thus likely to affect other processes during human brain development. To find out how thyroid hormones influence human fetal brain development requires further research.