It has been reported that prior exposure of thyroid tissue to TSH in vitro induces a state of refractoriness to new challenges of the hormone. We have investigated the effect of repeated TSH treatment on thyroid secretion to determine whether such refractoriness exists in vivo. The rate of thyroid secretion was estimated by measuring the rate of hydrolysis of labelled thyroglobulin from mouse thyroid glands in vitro. The thyroid glands were labelled in vivo with 131I and then cultured for 20 h in the presence of mononitrotyrosine, an inhibitor of iodotyrosine deiodinase. The rate of hydrolysis of labelled thyroglobulin was measured as the percentage of radioactivity released as free iodotyrosines and iodothyronines into the gland and the medium at the end of incubation. Thyrotrophin was administered in vivo at hourly intervals for 2–4 injections. The corresponding control group received saline injections every hour except for the last injection when they received TSH. The peak rates of thyroglobulin hydrolysis, measured 2 h following the last injection, were similar in animals receiving two, three or four TSH injections and were not different from those in the control groups. Serum tri-iodothyronine and thyroxine concentrations 2 h after the last injection were higher in the groups receiving multiple TSH injections. Thyroidal cyclic AMP accumulation in response to TSH was markedly depressed in the group receiving multiple injections compared with the group receiving a single injection of TSH in vivo. These data indicate that (1) the stimulatory effect of TSH on thyroidal secretion is not diminished by prior administration of the hormone in vivo, (2) repeated TSH administrations in vivo cause refractoriness of the adenylate cyclase response to TSH and (3) a dichotomy exists between the secretory response and the adenylate cyclase response to repeated administrations of TSH.
J. Endocr. (1985) 106, 153–157
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