Reconstruction of a thyroid gland equivalent from cells and matrix materials.

A living thyroid gland equivalent has been fabricated with a cultivated strain of rat thyroid cells (FRTL), dermal or thyroid fibroblasts, and matrix materials. The mixture becomes tissuelike in vitro by virtue of interactions between fibroblasts and collagen. Initially in vitro the thyroid cells are uniformly distributed as single cells and a small number of clusters containing less than 10 cells. When implanted into thyrodectomized hosts the thyroid cells in the tissue lattice become organized into follicles containing a colloidlike material. The follicles were found in clusters in sizes up to 0.3 mm. The clusters are vascularized. It is thought that they arise within clones rather than by an aggregation process. Using an antithyroglobulin antibody it was shown that both thyroid cells and the colloidlike material within follicles reacted positively. Development of follicles was strictly dependent on whether hosts were thyroidectomized. In nonthyroidectomized hosts no follicles were observed. We conclude that an organotypic structure can develop in vivo from a "gland-equivalent" fabricated with adult cells and matrix materials combined in vitro, and that cells cultivated for years in vitro retain the capacity to express differentiated functions in a reconstituted organ equivalent in vivo.