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Updated: Jun 12, 2025

Author Spotlight: In Vivo Assessment of Thyroid Hormone Disruption Using the THAI Mouse Model
Published on: October 6, 2023
Distinct transcriptional profiles in rat thyroid glands after developmental exposure to three in vitro
Anna Kjerstine Rosenmai1, Terje Svingen1, Bertrand Evrard2
1National Food Institute, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark.
Abstract:
Thyroperoxidase (TPO) is central in thyroid hormone (TH) synthesis and inhibition can lead to TH deficiency. Many chemicals can inhibit TPO activity in vitro, but how this may manifest in the developing thyroid gland at the molecular level is unclear. Here, we characterized the thyroid gland transcriptome of male rats developmentally exposed to the in vitro TPO-inhibitors amitrole, 2-mercaptobenzimidazole (MBI), or cyanamide by use of Bulk-RNA-Barcoding (BRB) and sequencing. Amitrole exposure caused TH deficiency and 149 differentially expressed genes in the thyroid gland. The effects indicated an activated and growing thyroid gland. MBI caused intermittent changes to serum TH concentrations in a previous study and this was accompanied by 60 differentially expressed genes in the present study. More than half of these were also affected by amitrole, indicating that they could be early effect biomarkers of developmental TH system disruption due to TPO inhibition. Further work to validate the signature is needed, including assessment of substance independency and applicability domain.
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