The parathyroid gland appears in the adult as a pair of inferior and a pair of superior "bumps" on the beside the (dorsal) thyroid (hence the name, "para"). The embryonic origin of this gland is from the third and fourth pharyngeal pouches endoderm, and could also have ectoderm and neural crest contributions.
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At 6 weeks a diverticulum elongates from the pouch, initially hollow and then solidifynig with cell proliferation.
Interestingly, the inferior parathyroid originates from the third pharyngeal pouch and the superior arises from the fourth pharyngeal pouch, the adult anatomical position is the opposite of the pharyngeal rostro-caudal order. This occurs due to the third pharyngeal pouch also giving rise to the thymus, the superior pair descend along with the thymus.
The fetal parathyroids appear functional as they respond to calcium levels. The fetal calcium levels also higher than maternal levels.
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Related Pages: Milk | Gastrointestinal Tract | Bone
Cao G, Gu Z, Ren Y, Shu L, Tao C, Karaplis A, Goltzman D, Miao D. Parathyroid Hormone Contributes to Regulating Milk Calcium Content and Modulates Neonatal Bone Formation Cooperatively with Calcium. Endocrinology. 2008 Oct 1.
"These results indicate that PTH can modulate calcium content of milk and that PTH and calcium can each exert cooperative roles on osteoblastic bone formation in the neonate."
Pioszak AA, Xu HE. Molecular recognition of parathyroid hormone by its G protein-coupled receptor. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2008 Mar 28;
"Parathyroid hormone (PTH) is central to calcium homeostasis and bone maintenance in vertebrates ...It acts primarily by binding to its receptor, PTH1R, a member of the class B G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) family that also includes receptors for glucagon, calcitonin, and other therapeutically important peptide hormones. ...we present a method for expression and purification of the extracellular domain (ECD) of human PTH1R"
Parvari R, Diaz GA, Hershkovitz E. Parathyroid development and the role of tubulin chaperone E. Horm Res. 2007;67(1):12-21.
Zou D, Silvius D, Davenport J, Grifone R, Maire P, Xu PX. Patterning of the third pharyngeal pouch into thymus/parathyroid by Six and Eya1. Dev Biol. 2006 May 15;293(2):499-512.
"These results indicate that Eya1 appears to be upstream of very early events in the initiation of thymus/parathyroid organogenesis, while Six genes (Six1, Six4) appear to act in an early differentiation step during thymus/parathyroid morphogenesis."
Embryo Images Unit: Embryo Images Online
Parathyroid
Week 6 - diverticulum elongate, hollow then solid, dorsal cell proliferation.
Fetal parathyroids - respond to calcium levels, fetal calcium levels higher than maternal.
Links: Journals | Online Textbooks | Search Textbooks | Reviews | Articles | Search PubMed | Glossary
Thyroid Thyroid The official journal of the American Thyroid Association.
Endocrinology: An Integrated Approach Nussey, S.S. and Whitehead, S.A. Oxford, UK: BIOS Scientific Publishers, Ltd; 2001. table of Contents
NIH Genes & Disease Chapter 41 - Endocrine
Developmental Biology (6th ed) Gilbert, Scott F. Sunderland (MA): Sinauer Associates, Inc.; c2000.
Molecular Biology of the Cell (4th Edn) Alberts, Bruce; Johnson, Alexander; Lewis, Julian; Raff, Martin; Roberts, Keith; Walter, Peter. New York: Garland Publishing; 2002.
Health Services/Technology Assessment Text (HSTAT) Bethesda (MD): National Library of Medicine (US), 2003 Oct.
Search NLM Online Textbooks "parathyroid development" : Endocrinology | Molecular Biology of the Cell | The Cell- A molecular Approach
Reviews
Parvari R, Diaz GA, Hershkovitz E. Parathyroid development and the role of tubulin chaperone E. Horm Res. 2007;67(1):12-21.
Articles
Tucci J, Russell A, Senior PV, Fernley R, Ferraro T, Beck F. The expression of parathyroid hormone and parathyroid hormone-related protein in developing rat parathyroid glands. J Mol Endocrinol. 1996 Oct;17(2):149-57.
Search PubMed
Search Jun2007 "parathyroid development" 2,986 reference articles of which 634 were reviews.
Search PubMed: term= parathyroid development
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This page introduces the development of the parathyroid endocrine gland. An endocrine gland involved in calcium and phosphate regulation.
Please email Dr Mark Hill if you wish to make a comment about this current project.