In view of recent reports suggesting that thyroid hormone control of TRH degradation occurs outside the central nervous system in animals, the effect of thyroid status on serum and tissue degradation of TRH in man was investigated. In six patients with hyperthyroidism and six patients with hypothyroidism, constant TRH infusions were carried out for determination of plasma clearance rate (PCR) and half-life of disappearance (t½) of TRH, with simultaneous determination of half-life of disappearance in serum in vitro (t½p). Using a kinetic model, this enabled the calculation of the half-life of disappearance in the extravascular tissue compartment (t½t). All patients were reinvestigated after they had become euthyroid. PCR, t½ and t½p were 22·1 ±3·4 ml/kg per min, 6·8±1·1 min and 17·3±6·7 min (means ± s.d.) respectively in the euthyroid patients. The t½p was slightly but significantly prolonged during hyperthyroidism. The t½ was 5·6 min in the hyperthyroid patients compared with 9·4 min in the hypothyroid patients. The calculated t½t was 6·5 min in the euthyroid patients. In the patients with untreated hyperthyroidism, t½t was significantly reduced (22·7±10·7%; mean ± s.d.), while it was considerably prolonged (41·1±24·6%) in patients with untreated hypothyroidism. The percentage reduction or prolongation of t½t was negatively correlated with the logarithm of the serum concentrations of thyroxine (r = 0·92) and tri-iodothyronine (r= 0·91) in the untreated patients. Thus, thyroid hormones induce alterations in the pharmacokinetics of TRH. This may partly be due to induction by thyroid hormones of membrane-bound pyroglutamyl aminopeptidase.
Journal of Endocrinology (1991) 128, 153–159
Journal of Endocrinology is committed to supporting researchers in demonstrating the impact of their articles published in the journal.
The two types of article metrics we measure are (i) more traditional full-text views and pdf downloads, and (ii) Altmetric data, which shows the wider impact of articles in a range of non-traditional sources, such as social media.
More information is on the Reasons to publish page.
| Sept 2018 onwards | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full Text Views | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| PDF Downloads | 3 | 0 | 0 |
Online ISSN: 1479-6805
Print ISSN: 0022-0795
Strengthening biomedical communities
to advance science and health
CONTACT US
Bioscientifica Ltd | Starling House | 1600 Bristol Parkway North | Bristol BS34 8YU | UK
Bioscientifica Ltd | Registered in England no 3190519
