Microencapsulation of porcine thyroid cell organoids within a polymer microcapsule construct

[helvella]

This paper - whilst enormously speculative - starts by saying that current thyroid hormone treatment has issues! Well, yes, that is a good start, far better than asserting yet again that levothyroxine is some sort of gold-standard treatment.

It expresses a need for a treatment without side-effects. What? Existing oral treatments aren't perfect? Some tarnish to the gold?

And the researchers positivily chose porcine thyroid cells. The very cells that produce the deprecated desiccated thyroid medicines.

Further, the authors are located both on China and in the USA. Probably the two leading players - in monetary value and volume, at least.

I feel that the mere existence of this paper is an important sign. Even if none of us is ever likely to receive the treatment, even in a final, fully released form. The years it will take to get to market, the slow uptake - however successful it is, the existing establishment colours nailed to the TSH/levothyroxine mast, and the cost, among many other reasons I am sure you could add. Its existence indicates that there are some people questioning where we are.

Exp Biol Med (Maywood). 2016 Oct 5. pii: 1535370216673746. [Epub ahead of print]

Microencapsulation of porcine thyroid cell organoids within a polymer microcapsule construct.

Yang Y1, Opara EC2, Liu Y3, Atala A4, Zhao W5.

Author information

1General Surgery Department and Laboratory of General Surgery, Xinhua Hospital of Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200092, China Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Medical Center Boulevard, Winston Salem, NC 27157, USA.

2Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Medical Center Boulevard, Winston Salem, NC 27157, USA.

3General Surgery Department and Laboratory of General Surgery, Xinhua Hospital of Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200092, China.

4Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Medical Center Boulevard, Winston Salem, NC 27157, USA [e-mail].

5Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Medical Center Boulevard, Winston Salem, NC 27157, USA Co-Innovation Center of Neuro-regeneration, Nantong University, Nantong 226001, China.

Abstract

Hypothyroidism is a common condition of hormone deficiency, and oral administration of thyroid hormones is currently the only available treatment option. However, there are some disadvantages with this treatment modality including compliance challenges to patients. Therefore, a physiologically based alternative therapy for hypothyroidism with little or no side-effects is needed. In this study, we have developed a method for microencapsulating porcine thyroid cells as a thyroid hormone replacement approach. The hybrid wall of the polymer microcapsules permits thyroid hormone release while preventing immunoglobulin antibodies from entry. This strategy could potentially enable implantation of the microcapsule organoids containing allogeneic or xenogeneic thyroid cells to secret hormones over time without the need for immunosuppression of recipients. Porcine thyroid cells were isolated and encapsulated in alginate-poly-L-ornithine-alginate microcapsules using a microfluidic device. The porcine thyroid cells formed three-dimensional follicular spheres in the microcapsules with decent cell viability and proliferation. Thyroxine release from the encapsulated cells was higher than from unencapsulated cells (P < 0.05) and was maintained during the entire duration of experiment (>28 days). These results suggest that the microencapsulated thyroid cell organoids may have the potential to be used for therapy and/or drug screening.

© 2016 by the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine.

KEYWORDS:

Microencapsulation; hormone deficiency; organoids; therapy; thyroid

PMID: 27708182

DOI: 10.1177/1535370216673746

[PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/277...

Full paper freely available here:

journals.sagepub.com/doi/pd...

[TSH110]

Fascinating , and thanks for posting. It is a shame we do not dictate our treatment options, I would definitely give this a go. I presume the technique could also be used in other disorders?

I fear you are right, that it will all come to nowt, health care is all about vested interests making a profit.

[silverfox7]

Thanks for posting!

[Hillwoman]

What an interesting idea. Thanks for posting.

[Hidden]

Many thanks, I will add this to my list of references when I make my complaint to the Endocrinology Society.