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Malignant nodules alter thyroid circadian clock
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Data from a new study reveal characteristics of the human thyroid circadian clock and how it changes as a result of malignant transformation. This understanding may improve the diagnosis of thyroid nodules before surgery, according to researchers.
“Our study provides for the first time an evidence for cell-autonomous high-amplitude circadian oscillators functional in cultured human primary thyrocytes established from healthy thyroid tissue,” Tiphaine Mannic, PhD, of the division of endocrinology, diabetes, nutrition and hypertension at the University Hospital of Geneva, Switzerland, and colleagues wrote.
The researchers collected thyroid tissue samples from patients undergoing thyroidectomy for thyroid cancer or a suspicious nodule. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction was used to quantify mRNA in thyroid tissues.
Mannic and colleagues wrote that the expression levels of BMAL1 were 13-fold upregulated in patients with follicular thyroid carcinoma and papillary thyroid carcinoma tissue samples vs. normal thyroid and benign nodules. However, CRY2 was downregulated in follicular thyroid carcinoma and papillary thyroid carcinoma tissue samples.
The researchers also found that self-sustained circadian oscillators are operative in human primary thyrocytes; characteristics were comparable to other human peripheral tissues.
Furthermore, human primary thyrocytes established from benign nodules demonstrated circadian oscillations with similar characteristics of those with normal thyrocytes. However, cells from poorly differentiated thyroid carcinoma displayed altered circadian oscillations.
“These new insights into the core-clock changes upon thyroid malignancies should contribute to the unresolved issue of the malignant nodule preoperative diagnosis,” Mannic and colleagues wrote. “Exploring human thyroid clock function and its potential role in thyroid nodule malignant transformation represents an important step forward in our understanding of the molecular link between clock function, thyroid tissue physiology and pathophysiology of malignant thyroid nodules.”
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
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