Oxyphil Cells
The oxyphil cell is larger and lighter staining than the chief cell.
Oxyphil cells appear at the onset of puberty, but have no known function. With nuclear medicine scans, they selectively take up the Technetium-sestamibi complex radiotracer dye to allow delineation of glandular anatomy.
Oxyphil cells have been shown to express parathyroid-relevant genes found in the chief cells and have the potential to produce additional autocrine/paracrine factors, such as Parathyroid hormone-related protein (PTHrP) and calcitriol.1