Nuclear Triiodothyronine Receptor

This work was presented in part at the 53rd Annual Meeting of The American Thyroid Association, Cleveland, Ohio, 7-10 September 1977. Dr. Larsen is an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Received for publication 29 August 1977 and in revised form 11 January 1978. well with both the change in TSH and the nuclear occupancy, suggesting a linear relationship between the integrated nuclear occupancy by T3 and TSH release rate. The contribution of intrapituitary T4 to T3 conversion to nuclear T, was accompanied by an appropriate decrease in TSH, supporting the biological relevance of nuclear T3. Pretreatment of the animals with 6-n-propylthiouracil before T4 injection decreased neither the nuclear T3 derived from intrapituitary T4 nor the subsequent decrease in TSH. These results indicate that intracellular monodeiodination of T4 contributes substantially to the nuclear T3 in the pituitary of the hypothyroid rat, and suggest a linear inverse relationship between nuclear receptor occupancy by T3 in the pituitary and TSH release rate. The data further indicate that T4 to T3 monodeiodination is considerably more important as a source of nuclear T3 in the pituitary than in the liver and kidney. This provides a mechanism whereby the TSH secretion could respond promptly to a decrease in thyroid secretion (predominantly T4) before a decrease in plasma T3 would be expected to lead to significant metabolic hypothyroidism.