The Ultimobranchial Origin of Calcitonin

Origin of the ultimobranchial body cyst: T/ebp/Nkx2.1 expression is required for development and fusion of the ultimobranchial body to the thyroid

“…Of interest, p63 is expressed in a small subset of cells that always lack T/ebp expression, indicating that the UBB is organized heterogeneously and may be derived from dual origins. Because T/ebp is expressed in C-cells in addition to thyroid follicular cells (Suzuki et al, 1998) and the UBB is composed mainly of C-cell precursors originated from the neural crest (Pearse and Carvalheira, 1967;Moseley et al, 1968;Pearse and Polak, 1971;Le Lievre and Le Douarin, 1975;Williams et al, 1989), it seems possible that T/ebpexpressing cells that account for the largest part of the UBB may have originated from the neural crest-derived cells. On the other hand, a small number of p63-positive, T/ebp-negative cells in the UBB are likely to have originated from the epithelium of the fourth pharyngeal pouch, in which p63 begins to be expressed around E9.5, a time before the UBB forms (Kusakabe and Kimura, unpublished observation).…”

Ultimobranchial and parathyroid glands of the pigeon Columba livia in response to 1,25(OH)2D3 administration

“…In the present study the follicular lumina contains cellular debris which is in agreement with the reports of Sehe (1965), Belanger (1971), Swarup and Das (1974) and Swarup et al (1986-87). However, Moseley et al (1968) reported the absence of true follicles in the ultimobranchial gland of chicken and pigeon.…”

Douglas Harold Copp. 16 January 1915 – 17 March 1998

“…A year or so later, Harold Copp visited Pearse's department and was convinced by Pearse's elegant demonstrations and inspired by these to return to his own laboratory and show by extraction techniques that the ultimobranchial gland (from which the parafollicular C cells were derived) could be used to extract a highly potent calcium-lowering peptide (3, 4). This demonstration was immediately preceded by a publication from Tauber in Texas (Tauber 1967) of an identical finding, although Copp's demonstration was the more conclusive and more widely accepted (3, 4) (Moseley et al 1968). By this time the existence and importance of calcitonin were now universally, if reluctantly, accepted and were underlined by convincing demonstrations of the mode of action by Friedman & Raisz (1965) in vitro and Martin et al (1966) in vivo.…”