The biological action of thyroxine on embryonic bones grown in tissue culture / by Honor B. Fell and E. Mellanby.

  • Fell, Honor B.
Date:
[1955?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The biological action of thyroxine on embryonic bones grown in tissue culture / by Honor B. Fell and E. Mellanby. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    3/26 page 427
    J. Physiol. (1955) 127, 427-447 > THE BIOLOGICAL ACTION OF THYROXINE ON EMBRYONIC BONES GROWN IN TISSUE CULTURE By HONOR B. FELL* and E. MELLANBY From the Strangeways Research Laboratory, Cambridge, and the Nutrition Building, National Institute for Medical Research, Mill Hill, London (.Received 3 September 1954) Tissue culture technique has proved to be of value in the study of the biological action of vitamin A (Fell & Mellanby, 1952, 1953), and it seemed possible that it might be useful in investigating the direct action on tissue of other biological substances such as the active principles of the thyroid gland. Many previous investigations into the action of thyroid active substances by tissue culture techniques have been reported, but it has proved to be an unprofitable field. The subject has been reviewed by Barker (1951) and he sums up the position as follows: ‘A conservative summary of the present status of this aspect of thyroid function would be that no in vitro response to thyroxine or thyro- globulin has yet been consistent enough to furnish a means of probing into the detailed mechanism of the action of the j hormone.’ Many efforts have, for instance, been made to see what thyroxine does to the growth of fibroblasts in vitro, but the wide variation in results only emphasizes the general conclu¬ sion of Barker (Semura, 1931; Vogelaar & Erlichman, 1936; Ebeling, 1924; Verne & Odiette, 1936; Latta & Davis, 1938; van Hamm & Cappel, 1940). Embryonic chick bones were chosen as the biological material for the present work largely because of previous evidence that the thyroid gland is involved in bone growth and maintenance of structure, since both deficiency and excess of its active principles produce bone abnormality. Clinical evidence based on radiographic examination from many quarters has shown that osteoporosis is common in hyperthyroidism (Kummer, 1917; Bernard, 1927; Plummer, 1928; Aub, Bauer, Heath & Ropes, 1929; Hunter, 1930). Heath, Bauer & Aub (1926) and Aub et al. (1929) found that both calcium and phosphorus excretion was greatly increased in hyperthyroidic patients, suggesting that these substances came from the calcium phosphate of the bones. In myxoedema, on the contrary, the calcium excretion was below that of normal individuals. Hunter (1930) reported two cases of hyperthyroidism with spontaneous fractures in * Foulerton Research Fellow, Royal (Society.
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