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Thyroid Stem Cells But Not Differentiated Thyrocytes Are Sensitive to Slightly Increased Concentrations of Heavy Metals
Thyroid cancer incidence is markedly increased in volcanic areas where residents are biocontaminated by chronic lifelong exposure to slightly increased metals in the environment. Metals can influence the biology of living cells by a variety of mechanisms, depending not only on the dose and length of...
Autores principales: | , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2021
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8092438/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33953698 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fendo.2021.652675 |
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author | Gianì, Fiorenza Masto, Roberta Trovato, Maria Antonietta Franco, Annarita Pandini, Giuseppe Vigneri, Riccardo |
author_facet | Gianì, Fiorenza Masto, Roberta Trovato, Maria Antonietta Franco, Annarita Pandini, Giuseppe Vigneri, Riccardo |
author_sort | Gianì, Fiorenza |
collection | PubMed |
description | Thyroid cancer incidence is markedly increased in volcanic areas where residents are biocontaminated by chronic lifelong exposure to slightly increased metals in the environment. Metals can influence the biology of living cells by a variety of mechanisms, depending not only on the dose and length of exposure but also on the type and stage of differentiation of target cells. We explored the effect of five heavy metals (Cu, Hg, Pd, W and Zn) at nanomolar concentrations (the biocontamination level in residents of the volcanic area in Sicily where thyroid cancer is increased) on stimulating the proliferation of undifferentiated (thyrospheres) and differentiated human thyroid cells. Thyrosphere proliferation was significantly increased after exposure to each individual metal and a greater stimulating effect was observed when a mixture of the examined metals was used. No effect was seen in differentiated thyrocytes. For all metals, the dose-response curve followed a biphasic pattern that is typical of hormesis. Thyrosphere growth concerned the size rather than number, except with the metal mixture. An altered morphology was also observed in metal-treated thyrospheres. Metal-induced proliferation was due to activation of the ERK1/2 pathway, as confirmed by growth inhibition when ERK1/2 signaling was blocked. These studies show that stem/precursor thyroid cells are sensitive to small increases in environmental metal concentrations that are harmless for differentiated thyrocytes. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8092438 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-80924382021-05-04 Thyroid Stem Cells But Not Differentiated Thyrocytes Are Sensitive to Slightly Increased Concentrations of Heavy Metals Gianì, Fiorenza Masto, Roberta Trovato, Maria Antonietta Franco, Annarita Pandini, Giuseppe Vigneri, Riccardo Front Endocrinol (Lausanne) Endocrinology Thyroid cancer incidence is markedly increased in volcanic areas where residents are biocontaminated by chronic lifelong exposure to slightly increased metals in the environment. Metals can influence the biology of living cells by a variety of mechanisms, depending not only on the dose and length of exposure but also on the type and stage of differentiation of target cells. We explored the effect of five heavy metals (Cu, Hg, Pd, W and Zn) at nanomolar concentrations (the biocontamination level in residents of the volcanic area in Sicily where thyroid cancer is increased) on stimulating the proliferation of undifferentiated (thyrospheres) and differentiated human thyroid cells. Thyrosphere proliferation was significantly increased after exposure to each individual metal and a greater stimulating effect was observed when a mixture of the examined metals was used. No effect was seen in differentiated thyrocytes. For all metals, the dose-response curve followed a biphasic pattern that is typical of hormesis. Thyrosphere growth concerned the size rather than number, except with the metal mixture. An altered morphology was also observed in metal-treated thyrospheres. Metal-induced proliferation was due to activation of the ERK1/2 pathway, as confirmed by growth inhibition when ERK1/2 signaling was blocked. These studies show that stem/precursor thyroid cells are sensitive to small increases in environmental metal concentrations that are harmless for differentiated thyrocytes. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-04-19 /pmc/articles/PMC8092438/ /pubmed/33953698 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fendo.2021.652675 Text en Copyright © 2021 Gianì, Masto, Trovato, Franco, Pandini and Vigneri https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
spellingShingle | Endocrinology Gianì, Fiorenza Masto, Roberta Trovato, Maria Antonietta Franco, Annarita Pandini, Giuseppe Vigneri, Riccardo Thyroid Stem Cells But Not Differentiated Thyrocytes Are Sensitive to Slightly Increased Concentrations of Heavy Metals |
title | Thyroid Stem Cells But Not Differentiated Thyrocytes Are Sensitive to Slightly Increased Concentrations of Heavy Metals |
title_full | Thyroid Stem Cells But Not Differentiated Thyrocytes Are Sensitive to Slightly Increased Concentrations of Heavy Metals |
title_fullStr | Thyroid Stem Cells But Not Differentiated Thyrocytes Are Sensitive to Slightly Increased Concentrations of Heavy Metals |
title_full_unstemmed | Thyroid Stem Cells But Not Differentiated Thyrocytes Are Sensitive to Slightly Increased Concentrations of Heavy Metals |
title_short | Thyroid Stem Cells But Not Differentiated Thyrocytes Are Sensitive to Slightly Increased Concentrations of Heavy Metals |
title_sort | thyroid stem cells but not differentiated thyrocytes are sensitive to slightly increased concentrations of heavy metals |
topic | Endocrinology |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8092438/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33953698 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fendo.2021.652675 |
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