We all come at these things from different directions, but to me, this is one of the best illustrations available.
In summary:
The thyroid cells take up the ingredients from the bloodstream.
The thyroid cells make thyroglobulin and push both the thyroglobulin and the ingredients into the colloid in the follicle - the inside of the balloon!
The thyroid hormone is actually made in the follicle at the ends of the thyroglobulin. Thyroglobulin is like a little machine tool which can make T4 and T3.
Then the thyroglobulin - with thyroid hormones still attached - gets taken back into the thyroid cell. And the thyroid hormone is split from the thyroglobulin and transported into the bloodstream.
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helvella
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This of course raises the question of how does oral T4 or NDT stimulate the athyreotic person. There is no thyroid to free the T4 and T3 entirely. With T4 the direct dosage is taken up, as is, through the intestines. With NDT on the other hand, the thyroglobulin-bound hormones have to be free from the protein before being able to be absorbed. This will partially happen in the stomach perhaps, but will be dealt with by the small intestine. Hence the take-up will be more gradual as the protein is digested and T4/T3 released.
Wow! Isn't nature wonderful! Thank you for explaining it in words. I'm a word person rather than a picture person. I could have looked at that diagram all day and ended up none the wiser. But, your explanation was clear and understandable. Thank you.
I would love to see a really well done video/animation/CGI - so we could appreciate the speed of things, how quantities (e.g. of stored T4 and T3) change over time, and so on.
Yes, that would be great. I once saw a really good video of the activity in a cell (not thyroid) that was absolutely fascinating. Unfortunately, I forgot to bookmark it, and I can't find it now.
In the depths of our cells, we use ATP to store/release/convert energy.
I suspect many think of that as being just one very important but rather small part of what happens.
The other day it was pointed out that the total quantity of ATP we produce in a day is probably, and usually is, greater than our entire body weight. Obviously, this is part of a cycle.
A simple and seemingly reasonable video about ATP:
ATP (adenosine triphosphate) is the driver of body processes that otherwise couldn't happen. All complex molecules (like glucose for example) have come about naturally because the energy from the sun has driven a process that otherwise couldn't occur. The glucose is gradually chopped into smaller fragments by a lot of stepwise reactions. Two of these reactions involve releasing energy in the form of ADP (the diphosphate) being the possibility for the production of ATP which is energetic. How is it energetic when ADP isn't? ADP has two phosphates joined together. They can resonate between two forms (that is, you get cross-conversion between the forms as an ongoing two-way process. The energetic level of this interconversion is lowered precisely because of this process. But if you add another phosphate to make ATP, the resonance is stopped - the extra phosphate prevents it. A blocked system like this has more energy in the molecule than if it could resonate like ATP. So this extra energy can be transferred in many essential reactions, which otherwise couldn't happen. So in essence ATP is an indirect product of the sun's energy and transfers that energy to force unwilling reactions to occur.
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