Detection of mRNA of sodium iodide symporter in benign and malignant human thyroid tissues

Human sodium iodide symporter (hNIS) is an intrinsic membrane protein with 12 transmembrane regions, which shows homology to other sodium-dependent transporters. There is controversy as to the amount of hNIS expression in different kinds of human thyroid cancer tissues and cell lines. In this study, reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was used to detect mRNA of hNIS in various fresh normal, benign tissues and malignant human thyroid tissues. The forward primer was nested hNIS-5' primer containing the sequences: ACCTGGAAATGCGCTTCAGC. The reverse primer was nested hNIS-3' primer containing the sequences: AAGCATGACACCGCGTGCCA. The results revealed three of three normal tissues, six of eight nodular hyperplasia, two of two hyperthyroidism, one of three follicular adenomas, five of ten papillary thyroid carcinomas, one of one follicular carcinoma and zero of one metastatic follicular tissues demonstrated positive results for hNIS in thyroid epithelial cells. A higher percentage of positive results of the symporter mRNA were found in normal benign thyroid tissues and the thyroid tissues of hyperthyroidism, and nodular hyperplasia (84.6%); however follicular adenoma, papillary and follicular thyroid carcinomas demonstrated a lower percentage of expression in the RT-PCR studies (46.7%). Serum thyrotropin levels and the degree of differentiated components presented in cancer tissues have been mentioned as important factors for hNIS expression in the cancer tissues. The discrepancies of the expression of hNIS in in vivo and in vitro studies need further investigation. In conclusion, hNIS was found in higher ratios in normal and benign thyroid tissues than in the malignant tissues. In addition, the RT-PCR technique hNIS did not detect the transporter in most papillary thyroid cancer tissues.