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Immunocytological Evidence for Parathyroid Hormone in Human Fetal Parathyroid Glands^*

Laboratoire d’Histologie et Embryologie, Faculté de Médicine, Lyon Sud, Oullins, and Hopital Edouard Herriot and Faculté de Médecine Alexis Carrel Lyon, France Harvard Medical School and Children’s Hospital Medical Center Boston, Massachusetts 02115

Address requests for reprints to: Prof. P. M. Dubois, Laboratoire d’Histologie-Embryologie, Faculté de Médecine Lyon Sud, B. P. 12, 69600 Oullins, France.

Immunostaining with antiserum to bovine parathyroid hormone (PTH) was used to delineate the immunoreactive PTH (iPTH)-containing cells of parathyroid glands from 1 anencephalic and 29 normal human fetuses. The antiserum (GPO 3) cross-reacted with human PTH and recognized the carboxyl-terminal fragments of the PTH molecule. No iPTHcontaining cells were observed in the parathyroid glands of the 6 fetuses younger than 10 weeks, in spite of the fact that organized parathyroid glands were identified by histological methods. By contrast, iPTH-containing cells were observed in all fetuses older than 10 weeks of gestation, including the anencephalic fetus. All cells were immunoreactive either at the cellular periphery or as a more diffuse cytoplasmic staining around the nucleus. No immunoreactive cells were observed in the thyroid or thymic parenchyma. The specificity of the immunocytological reaction was tested by the usual procedures. Previous in vitro studies suggested that parathyroid function might be active at 12 weeks of gestation. Our data suggest that iPTH is synthetized by parathyroid glands as early as 10 weeks of gestation and is also present in the anencephalic fetus. The physiological significance of the early presence of PTH within the fetal parathyroid glands remains to be established.

^* This work was supported by a grant from the Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Medical (ATP 55.77.87; to P.M.D.).

Received July 10, 1980.

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