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Biomedical subjects

W L Green

Publications and source records attributed to W L Green.

35 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Induction of a coupling defect in rats during inhibition of tyrosine dehalogenase.

We have reported earlier that administration of 3-nitro-L-tyrosine (MNT), 8 mM in drinking water, to rats receiving a low iodine diet (LID) results in greater TSH secretion, larger goiters, and more rapid uptake and release of radioiodine than LID alone, and ultimately may produce hypothyroidism. These findings have been confirmed, and hypothyroidism documented by demonstrating depressed levels of hepatic mitochondrial alpha-glycerophosphate dehydrogenase. Also, prolonged treatment with MNT + LID produced a depression in labeled iodothyronine (ITh) synthesis, as judged by chromatographic analysis of thyroid digests from rats killed 4 or 24 hours after ip injection of radioiodine, or two weeks after adding radioiodine to drinking fluid. Low thyroidal ITh levels were accompanied by low levels of ITh in serum, despite the presence of various other labeled organic iodine compounds. Cessation of MNT treatment, or ip injection of small amounts (0.5-1.0 mug) of Na 127I together with radioiodine 4 h before sacrifice reversed the defect, and large amounts of ITh were found in both thyroid and serum. Labeled thyroprotein from MNT-treated rats showed increased susceptibility to disaggregation during freezing at pH 8.5; this abnormality was also reversed by stable iodine treatment. In glands labeled with radioiodine 24 h before sacrifice, stable iodine injection 20 h later was followed by increased thyroidal ITh. It is concluded that profound iodine deficiency, induced by MNT + LID, can lead to diminished ITh synthesis, or a "coupling defect". The results provide an explanation for the finding of low thyroidal ITh in patients with hereditary deficiency of tyrosine dehalogenase. The findings confirm an important role for iodine supply in ITh synthesis and thyroglobulin stability, and suggest that rats treated with MNT + LID provide a model for study of the effects of extreme iodine deficiency.

Animals↗

Triiodothyronine (T3)-binding immunoglobulins in a euthyroid woman: effects on measurement of T3 (RIA) and on T3 turnover.

A 36-year-old woman with nodular goiter, nervousness, and tachycardia was evaluated for T3 toxicosis. Her serum thyroxine level, resin T3 uptake, and thyroidal radioiodine uptake were normal. Her T3 (RIA), by a technique employing charcoal to separate bound and free T3, was reported as indeterminate due to an interfering substance; by a double-antibody method, her T3 (RIA) was 325 ng/dl. Further studies of the patient's serum revealed an abnormal T3-binding protein which misgrated in the beta-gamma globulin zone on paper electrophoresis and gel filtration chromatography (Sephadex G-200), and was precipitated from serum by rabbit anti-human Fab antibody. The gamma globulin fraction of the patient's serum, separated by a standard technique, showed strong binding activity toward [125I]T3, with an association constant of 4.1 X 10(8) 1/mole (Scatchard plot). In a similar system, labeled T4 was not bound. To avoid artefacts which this T3-binding protein might produce in assaying unextracted serum, T3 (RIA) was performed on an ethanol extract of serum and found to be 191 ng/dl, a slight elevation. However, the metabolic clearance rate of injected [125I]T3, estimated by non-compartmental analysis of the serum decay curve or by the specific activity or urinary T3, was about 16 1/day, a low value, so that the T3 production rate, 31 mug/day, was normal. The patient's symptoms disappeared with the resolution of domestic problems, and she appeared clinically euthyroid. Serum TSH was 5.0 uU/ml and antithyroglobulin titer, 1:16. A test for antibodies to thyroid microsomes was negative. We postulate that this subject was euthyroid, but had a concentration of T3-binding immunoglobulin which was sufficient to produce modest slowing of T3 turnover, borderline elevation of extractable T3 (RIA), and a major artefact in the T3 (RIA) measurement of unextracted serum. A similar abnormality may account for other instances of high T3:T4 ratios in serum.

Adult↗

Metabolism of thyroxine and triiodothyronine in patients with chronic granulomatous disease.

Normal human leukocytes can degrade thyroid hormones in vitro especially during phagocytosis. To test whether the leukocyte system plays a significant role in hormone economy in vivo, studies of the metabolism of labeled T4 and T3 granulomatous disease, whose leukocytes had earlier been shown to have a reduced ability to degrade the thyroid hormones. Hormone turnover rates in the 3 subjects were similar to those reported for normal children by various investigarors. Also, normal ratios between fecal and urinary excretion of radioactivey were observed, suggested that deiodination was the major route of hormone breakdown, as it is in normal subjects. Our interpretations of these findings are: 1) an intact leukocyte hormone degrading system is not essential for normal rates of thyroid hormone metabolism in vivo; 2) the leukocyte defect in chronic granulomatous disease is not accompanied by a general defect in mechanism for thyroid hormone degradation in other tissues.

Adolescent↗

Results of primary and secondary flexor-tendon repairs in no man's land.

The results of primary and secondary repair of seventy-one flexor-tendon lacerations in Bunnell's no man's land of the hand usually were good when the following principles were adhered to: careful preoperative selection of patients, use of atraumatic technique, avoidance of advancing the flexor digitorum profundus tendon more than one centimeter distally, and caution in performing secondary repairs when both the flexor digitorum superficialis and the profundus were completely severed. Secondary repair resulted in a higher failure rate (loss of extension) only when both tendons were completely severed.

Adolescent↗

Degradation of thyroid hormones by phagocytosing human leukocytes.

Thyroxine (T(4)) and triiodothyronine (T(9)) are rapidly degraded by a purified preparation of myeloperoxidase (MPO) and H(2)O(2) with the formation of iodide and material which remains at the origin on paper chromatography. Deiodination by MPO and H(2)O(2) occurs more readily at pH 7.0 than at pH 5.0 in contrast to iodination by this system which is known to occur more readily at pH 5.0 than at pH 7.0. Degradation is inhibited by azide, cyanide, ascorbic acid, and propylthiouracil. Methimazole stimulates deiodination by MPO and H(2)O(2) but inhibits this reaction when MPO is replaced by lactoperoxidase or horseradish peroxidase.Intact human leukocytes, in the resting state, degrade T(4) and T(3) slowly: degradation, however, is increased markedly during phagocytosis of preopsonized particles. Serum inhibits this reaction. T(3) can be detected as a minor product of T(4) degradation. Proteolytic digestion of the reaction products increases the recovery of monoiodotyrosine. The fixation of iodine in the cytoplasm of leukocytes which contain ingested bacteria was detected radioautographically. Chronic granulomatous disease leukocytes, which are deficient in H(2)O(2) formation, degrade T(4) and T(3) poorly during phagocytosis. MPO-deficient leukocytes degrade the thyroid hormones at a slower rate than do normal leukocytes although considerable degradation is still observed. Azide, cyanide, ascorbic acid, and propylthiouracil which inhibit certain peroxidasecatalyzed reactions inhibit degradation by normal leukocytes; however, inhibition is incomplete. Formation of iodinated origin material is inhibited to a greater degree by azide, cyanide, and propylthiouracil than is deiodination. Methimazole inhibits the formation of iodinated origin material by both normal and MPO-deficient leukocytes. However, deiodination by normal leukocytes is stimulated and that of MPO-deficient leukocytes is unaffected by methimazole. Hypoxia inhibits the degradation of T(4) and T(3) by untreated normal or MPO-deficient leukocytes and by normal leukocytes treated with azide or methimazole. These data suggest that both MPO-dependent and MPO-independent systems are involved in the degradation of T(4) and T(3) by phagocytosing leukocytes. The role of leukocytic degradation of T(4) and T(3) in thyroid hormone economy and in leukocytic microbicidal activity is considered.

Ascorbic Acid↗

Effects of 3-nitro-L-tyrosine on thyroid function in the rat: an experimental model for the dehalogenase defect.

The effects on thyroid function of an inhibitor of tyrosine dehalogenase, 3-nitro-L-tyrosine (MNT) have been investigated in rats. In preliminary studies, marked inhibition of iodotyrosine deiodination was demonstrated in rats drinking 8 mM MNT. A series of experiments was then performed in which rats received Remington low iodine diet and 8 mM MNT as drinking fluid. This regimen had the following effects, compared to the effects of a low iodine diet alone: (a) a decrease in serum protein-bound iodine, elevation of serum thyrotropin level, goiter, and growth inhibition all prevented or reversed by iodine supplements: (b) on initiation of MNT, a 2- to 3-fold increase in the rate of release of radioiodine from the thyroid and concomitant urinary excretion of large amounts of organic iodine: and (c) after 2 wk of MNT, a greatly increased rate of thyroidal uptake and release of (131)I, an increase in the ratio of monoiodotyrosine-(131)I to diiodotyrosine-(131)I in thyroid proteolysates and the appearance of labeled iodotyrosines in serum. Acute administration of MNT intraperitoneally to rats on either an iodine-deficient or iodine-sufficient diet did not inhibit thyroidal uptake of (131)I or alter the distribution of (131)I among thyroidal iodoamino acids. It is concluded that MNT is an effective inhibitor of iodotyrosine deiodination in vivo, without other important actions on thyroid function. Thus, MNT treatment affords a model for the human dehalogenase defect. By provoking iodotyrosine secretion and consequent urinary loss of iodine, MNT can exaggerate the effects of a low iodine intake, producing goitrous hypothyroidism despite a rapid rate of iodine turnover in the thyroid.

Administration, Oral↗

Interactions of iron deficiency, anemia, and thyroid hormone levels in response of rats to cold exposure.

We have earlier shown that iron-deficient rats have increased urinary norepinephrine (NE) excretion. They also have an exaggerated rise in urinary NE when placed in the cold, a stimulus known to cause increased NE excretion in normal rats. Nonetheless, they fall to maintain body temperature. We have now examined the thyroidal response to cold in iron-deficient rats. As others have shown, control rats had a rise in plasma levels of thyroxine (T4) and triiodothyronine (T3) soon after entering the cold environment (4 degree C); they also maintained a rectal temperature above 36 degree C. In the iron-deficient rats, basal levels of T3 and T4 were normal, but there was little or no increase after 6 hr in the cold, and, as before, body temperatures fell. Injections of T3, 10 microgram/kg, 15 min before cold exposure improved the ability of iron-deficient rats to maintain body temperature, but they still did not do as well as the controls. We conclude that the inability of iron-deficient rats to increase T3 levels after cold exposure is one factor in their poor resistance to cold. The defect could involve inability to augment thyroid secretion, imparied ability to convert T4 to T3 in peripheral tissues, or both. Preliminary data suggest that anemia is an important and perhaps critical factor in the cold sensitivity of iron deficiency. Transfusing iron-deficient rats from their usual hematocrit of 15-20 to one of 30 restores cold resistance to normal. Transfusion also allows a more normal thyroid response, with a rise in T3 and T4 levels, so thyroid hormones may be a factor in the improvement produced by transfusion.

Anemia, Hypochromic↗