[Correlations between the functional activity and proliferation of the thyroid parenchyma. The proliferative forms of the parenchyma of the thyroid].

Multiple thyroid adenomas formed by straight or coiled epithelial cords developed in experiments on adult male rats as a result of prolonged intermittent 6-MTU administration. Such epithelial cords could be sometimes observed in thyroid parenchyma regeneration after partial thyroidectomy. These cords originated from thyrocytes of the follicle epithelium. In the proliferating thyroid parenchyma DNA replication mainly terminated in endomitoses (previously reported data) which in thyrocytes of prismatic form resulted in their separation from proximal and distal daughter cells. Proximal daughter cells kept contact with the follicle lumen but distal ones lost it, hence their iodine uptake and origination weakened. Therefore, the biosynthesis of thyroglobulin decreased in cytoplasm of distal daughter cells but the formation of thyroalbumin increased. In consequence the distal daughter cells with this shift in protein biosynthesis underwent hypertrophy and further originated the proliferation of extra follicular epithelial cords. The formation of new follicles mainly took place with the differentiation of interfollicular islets separated from proliferating extrafollicular epithelial cords. Thyrotropin, the principal stimulator of hormonopoietic thyrocyte activity, did not necessarily influence the activation of thyroid parenchyma proliferative processes.