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Endocrine Abstracts (2016) 41 OC14.1 | DOI: 10.1530/endoabs.41.OC14.1

1Department of Pathophysiology and Transplantation, University of Milan, Milan, Italy; 2Division of Pathology, Fondazione IRCCS Ca’ Granda, Milan, Italy; 3Division of Endocrine and Metabolic Diseases & Lab of Endocrine and Metabolic Research, Istituto Auxologico Italiano IRCCS, Milan, Italy; 4Department of Clinical Sciences and Community Health, University of Milan, Milan, Italy; 5Endocrine Surgery Unit, Fondazione IRCCS Ca’ Granda, Milan; Department of Biomedical, Surgical and Dental Sciences, University of Milan, Milan, Italy; 6Department of Biomedical, Surgical and Dental Sciences, University of Milan, Milan, Italy; 7Endocrine Unit, Fondazione IRCCS Ca’ Granda, Milan, Italy.


Introduction: Cells with stem-like properties have been reported in benign and malignant thyroid diseases, and can be propagated by culturing them as non-adherent spheres.

Design: Aim of the present study was to widely characterize the stem-like cells in tumor and normal thyroid tissues and in the corresponding in vitro-cultured thyrospheres, and to investigate in vivo the proangiogenic potential of thyrospheres in a zebrafish model.

Result: Among the stemness markers tested, POU5F1/OCT4 has the highest expression in both tumor tissues and thyrospheres. POU5F1/OCT4 is expressed in the core of tumor thyrospheres, whereas TG and TTF1 differentiation markers are expressed at the periphery, indicating a progressive differentiative process from the center to the border of the spheres. Endothelial markers (CD34 and CD31) are co-expressed in both tumor and normal spheres, mimicking the formation of vascular structures, consistent with the pluripotency of the spheres cells which are able to directly contribute to their own vasculature. Finally, we show that the injection of either tumor or normal thyrospheres into the subepidermal space of zebrafish embryos stimulates the migration and growth of sprouting vessels toward the implant.

Conclusion: We widely characterized stem-like cells in thyroid tissues and in the corresponding thyrospheres, and established xenografts in zebrafish. These in vitro and in vivo models are expected to become a valuable platform to test the effects of novel compounds on stem-like cells.

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