Longterm cultures of sheep thyroid cells

A thyroid tissue culture system has been established in which follicular morphology can be preserved for at least 30 days. The system is highly dependent on whether or not the medium supporting the cells is changed during the culture period. The high levels of TSH (40 mU/ml) normally used in thyroid culture systems enhance follicular morphology but are not a prerequisite for differentiation. In the absence of medium changes follicular morphology improves for up to 20 days after initiation of the culture. Thereafter, the cells die unless the medium is changed. If differentiation is to be preserved after 20 days the medium into which the cells are transferred must be "conditioned" by preincubation with thryoid cultures. Regular medium changes into fresh medium causes the cultures to lose their differentiated characteristics and revert to a conventional monolayer. The capacity of these cultures to trap iodide has been quantified using a new method. The method is based on comparison of the 125I--iodide retained by thyroid cells with that retained in a undifferentiated established cell line (CHO--K1). The results demonstrated that trapping can be preserved for at least 20 days in cells cultured in the presence of TSH, provided the medium is not changed; and that under appropriate conditions the cells can trap iodide even in the absence of TSH stimulation. The extent to which the above cultures proliferate is also investigated. At the relatively high innoculation of cells used in primary cultures little proliferation takes place even when the cells are stimulated by TSH. However, regular medium changed induce some growth. In the absence of medium changes the cells die after 15-20 days. Those grown in the presence of TSH live slightly longer than those grown in its absence. Subculturing thyroid cells and innoculating them at low densities in Petri dishes leads to substantial cell proliferation whether or not TSH is present. The doubling time of cells in these cultures is the order of 1 to 2 days. The population resulting from this growth exhibit both epithelial and fibroblast like morphology although the former predominates. When cells from primary thryoid cultures are reseeded at very low concentrations (approximately 10(3) cells/Petri dish) about 3-10 per cent of the population give rise to viable macroscopic clones.