A new staining technique has been developed for the thyroid gland of the rat which in addition to being an excellent histological stain is a histochemical method for the rapid identification of the colloid containing iodinated thyroglobulin from that which contains biologically inactive protein material. Various indices such as incorporation of radioiodine 131, gland weight, epithelial height, and total number of follicles have been used totest the validity of the color reaction in the colloid. The comparison of these diverse indices of thyroid activity show that the blue colloid is directly related to the physical activity of the gland. As a result of our studies further insight has been gained into several aspects of thyroid physiology: (a) in the normal rat only about fifty percent of the gland contains active colloidal material; (b) complete incorporation of iodine 131 into the colloid requires longer than twenty-four hours in the normal rat; (c) information on the role of thiouracil raises the question of its action in iodine deficient rats; (d) evidence is offered for intracellular protein binding of iodine rather than the view that it is restricted to the follicular colloid; (e) additional evidence is presented that short exposure to cold brings about an immediate physiological and morphological response by the thyroid; (f) ascorbic acid has no apparent effect on the thyroid itself; (g) evidence favors the view that the pituitary gland is the rate-controlling principle in thyriod hormonogenesis; (h) the histochemical method may be of value in pathological diagnosis of thyriod slices and biopsies.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uottawa.ca/oai:ruor.uottawa.ca:10393/10891 |
| Date | January 1959 |
| Creators | LaHam, Quentin N. |
| Publisher | University of Ottawa (Canada) |
| Source Sets | Université d’Ottawa |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 114 p. |
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