The role of “inactive thyroid hormone metabolite’’

Project summary

Thyroid hormone (TH) is crucial for human brain development. The current dogma in thyroid field is that reverse T3 (rT3) is an inactive form of TH. There are however indications suggesting the biological relevance of rT3, particularly in fetal brain development. The lack of understanding of the role of rT3 in fetal brain development makes for a major knowledge gap. The breakthrough of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPSCs) technology offers a unique opportunity to study living human brain cells.

This project proposes a human cellular model to unravel the neglected role of rT3 in fetal brain development.