Engineering parathyroid cells to treat secondary hyperparathyroidism.

Kanai et al. used antisense technology to reduce excessive PTH production. The authors have overcome technical difficulties to demonstrate that, by strategies of RNA interference, a steady reduction of PTH secretion can be induced in cultured parathyroid-cell spheroids and in athymic nude mice with hyperplastic parathyroid cells transplanted from patients with secondary hyperparathyroidism.