Teratogenic action of the thyroid stimulating hormone and its interaction with trypan blue

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Abstract
The role that the thyroid gland may play in embryonic development has been under investigation for many years. A direct relationship between thyroid gland function and development is best illustrated in the amphibia (see Kollros, 1961, for pertinent literature). Attempts to demonstrate a similar influence of thyroxin on development in mammals has led to controversial results, in part due to the difficulty of separating the metabolic from the possible developmental effects of the hormone. In order for thyroxin to exert a direct effect upon the mammalian embryo it must cross the placenta. The bulk of the evidence seems to favor the viewpoint that the placenta is rather impermeable to thyroxin during the early stages of gestation and that this permeability increases near term. This is apparently true of the rabbit and man (Osorio & Myant, 1960) and the rat (Hamburgh, Sobel, Koblin & Rinestone, 1962; Roy & Kobayashi, 1962).