The thyroid follicular cell type is devoted to the synthesis of thyroid hormones. Several
genes, whose protein products are essential for efficient hormone biosynthesis, are uniquely
expressed in this cell type. A set of transcriptional regulators, unique to the thyroid follicular
cell type, has been identified as responsible for thyroid specific gene expression; it
comprises three transcription factors, named TTF-1, TTF-2, and Pax8, each of which is
expressed also in cell types different from the thyroid follicular cells. However, the …