The influence of thiol derivatives on synthesis of thyroid hormones in human thyroid cultured cells.

The experiments were carried out on 26 lots of thyroid cell cultures treated with sodium sulphate, lithium sulphate, lithium carbonate, cystine, cysteine, and methionine, in 2 doses each, in the presence or absence of iodine in the culture medium. The monolayer culture was used in morphologic, cytochemical and cytoenzymatic studies, and the culture medium was used for assay of thyroglobulin and thyroxin. We found that addition of aminoacids with SH or S--S groups to the culture medium causes stimulation of protein synthesis overstrain on the oxydases system at the expense of dehydrogenases. Stimulation of protein synthesis in the thyroid cell cultures under study is not accompanied by a corresponding hormonal secretory activity, the process of hormonal biosynthesis being inhibited as compared to the control culture.