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Please have a look at this close up light microscopic image of a thyroid gland:

enter image description here

So I'm guessing the cubic epithelial cells surrounding this big red pulp are the secreting cells...? If so, is the red pulp a blood vessel that they are secreting into?

Am I misunderstanding?

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    $\begingroup$ Please do open any physiology/histology text and find the answer better explained than any of us could do it here. When you have read and have further specific questions, you are welcome to ask them here. BTW, no these are not blood vessels. $\endgroup$
    – Raoul
    Commented Oct 8, 2014 at 21:30
  • $\begingroup$ Do not believe that this is a HW question and if it is, he has made an attempt to answer it so I am fine with it. $\endgroup$
    – The Last Word
    Commented Oct 9, 2014 at 7:32

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That "red pulp" spaces you're referring are not blood vessels but, in fact, thyroid follicles that selectively absorb iodine from the blood for production of thyroid hormones and storage of thyroglobuline. So, they act as a reservoir of the materials used by the thyroid's epithelial cells, also called follicular cells, to produce thyroid hormones (T3 and T4).

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