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R. Valcavi
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C. Dieguez
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C. Azzarito
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C. Artioli
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I. Portioli
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M. F. Scanlon
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ABSTRACT

We have tested the hypothesis that α-adrenergic drive is involved in the nocturnal increase in TSH in man. Seven mildly hypothyroid women (basal TSH levels 5·0–11·0 mU/1), aged 38–60 years, and nine euthyroid women, aged 27–60 years, were studied. Subjects underwent α-adrenergic blockade by infusion of thymoxamine (210 μg/min from 19.00 to 24.00 h); the same women were used as controls, with saline infused on different nights. Subjects were not allowed to sleep during the study period.

A clear evening rise in basal TSH levels was apparent in both normal subjects and patients. Although overall secretion of TSH was slightly decreased in normal subjects (mean ± s.e.m. area under the curve, 29·93 ± 0·96 vs 30·71 ±mU/1 per h; P<0·05), thymoxamine infusion did not produce any major alteration in the gradual rise in TSH levels during the evening (incremental change above baseline +0·96± 0·21 during control infusion and + 0·97 ± 0·27 mU/1 during thymoxamine infusion). In mildly hypothyroid patients the TSH changes were exaggerated and α-adrenergic blockade caused a reduction in basal TSH levels and a delayed rise in TSH (incremental change above baseline +2·93 ± 1·42 during control infusion and +2·26 ± 0·73 mU/1 during thymoxamine infusion; P < 0·02). Overall TSH secretion was significantly decreased by thymoxamine (mean ± s.e.m. area 106 ± 2·45 mU/1 per h vs 123·32 ± 3·68 in the control study; P<0·0001). As expected, no circadian change was observed in basal prolactin levels in either controls or patients.

Although α-adrenergic pathways may play a role in modulating the nocturnal increase in basal TSH levels, our data suggest that the evening rise in TSH is not a consequence of a primary increase in α-adrenergic drive. The increased TSH changes of mildly hypothyroid patients may, however, be sustained by increased central α-adrenergic stimulation of the TSH secretion.

J. Endocr. (1987) 115, 187–191

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De-Fu Ma
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Katsuko Sudo Department of Pathology, Tokyo Medical University Animal Research Center, Center for Life Science Research, University of Yamanashi, 1110 Shimokato, Chuo Yamanashi 409-3898, Japan

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Hideo Tezuka Department of Pathology, Tokyo Medical University Animal Research Center, Center for Life Science Research, University of Yamanashi, 1110 Shimokato, Chuo Yamanashi 409-3898, Japan

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Tetsuo Kondo
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Tadao Nakazawa
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Dong-Feng Niu
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Tomonori Kawasaki
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Kunio Mochizuki
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Tetsu Yamane
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Ryohei Katoh
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excitation light. Moreover, we evaluated the clonality of individual hormone-producing cell populations, including GH, prolactin (PRL), TSH, FSH, LH, and ACTH cells in pituitary, C cells in thyroid, and the insulin-producing β-cells and glucagon-secreting α

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A. S. Yap
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J. R. Bourke
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S. W. Manley
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ABSTRACT

Cultured porcine thyroid cells did not reassociate into functional follicles in the presence of TSH unless the initial seeding density was adequate. At 0·2 × 106 cells/35 mm diameter culture dish the cells rapidly formed a monolayer even in the presence of TSH (128 μu./ml), and radioiodide uptake was not significantly increased compared with that in control cells. Seeding densities of 1–3 × 106 cells/dish resulted in cultures which responded to TSH with follicular development and increased radioiodide uptake. A cell-free membrane fraction of thyroid homogenate restored the ability of cultures seeded at low densities to respond to TSH with development of follicular morphology and increased radioiodide uptake. Delaying the addition of TSH by 48 h markedly reduced the stimulation of follicular development and radioiodide uptake of cultures. Addition of membrane fractions, or an alkali-soluble fraction of membranes, at zero time improved the responses to TSH added after a 48-h delay. It was concluded that maintenance of differentiation and of TSH-responsiveness in cultured thyroid cells was influenced by cell–cell contact.

J. Endocr. (1987) 113, 223–229

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T. A. Hambleton
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J. R. Bourke
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G. J. Huxham
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S. W. Manley
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ABSTRACT

Cultured porcine thyroid cells exhibit a resting membrane potential of about − 73 mV and depolarize to about − 54 mV on exposure to TSH. The depolarizing response to TSH was preserved in a medium consisting only of inorganic salts and buffers, but was abolished in sodium-free medium, demonstrating dependence on an inward sodium current. Increasing the potassium concentration of the medium resulted in a reduction in the resting membrane potential of 60 mV per tenfold change in potassium concentration, and a diminished TSH response. A hyperpolarizing TSH response was observed in a sodium- and bicarbonate-free medium, indicating that a hyperpolarizing ion current (probably carried by potassium) was also enhanced in the presence of TSH. Tetrodotoxin blocked the TSH response. We conclude that the response of the thyroid cell membrane to TSH involves increases in permeability to sodium and potassium, and that the thyroid membrane ion channels bear some similarity to the voltage-dependent sodium channels of excitable tissues, despite the absence of action potentials in the thyroid.

J. Endocr. (1986) 108, 225–230

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M. Mori
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I. Kobayashi
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S. Kobayashi
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ABSTRACT

We have investigated the effect of TRH on the accumulation of glycosylated TSH in the rat anterior pituitary gland. Hemipituitaries from adult male rats were incubated in medium containing [3H]glucosamine in the presence of TRH. [3H]Glucosamine-labelled TSH in media and pituitaries was measured by immunoprecipitation and characterized by isoelectric focusing after affinity chromatography. Incorporation of [3H]glucosamine into immunoprecipitable TSH in the media and pituitaries increased progressively with the period of incubation. Although the release of [3H]glucosamine-labelled and unlabelled TSH into media was stimulated by the addition of TRH in a time- and dose-dependent manner, TRH administration did not alter the amounts of labelled or unlabelled TSH in the anterior pituitary lobes. The anterior pituitaries were found, by isoelectric focusing analysis, to be composed of four major component peaks of [3H]glucosamine-labelled TSH. Administration of TRH caused profound changes in the radioactivity of these components and evoked new radioactive peaks, resulting in the appearance of six components in total. The present data provide evidence that TRH significantly changes the heterogeneity of glycosylated TSH in the anterior pituitary without altering the amount of the glycosylated form.

J. Endocr. (1986) 109, 227–231

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J. R. E. Davis
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M. C. Sheppard
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ABSTRACT

We have studied the effects of cyclic AMP (cAMP) on TSH secretion by cultured rat pituitary cells, using forskolin and dibutyryl cAMP (dbcAMP) to raise the cellular cAMP content by different mechanisms. Forskolin (10 μmol/l), a stimulator of adenylate cyclase, raised the cAMP content within 10 min, but had a more delayed effect on TSH release, with no significant stimulation for at least 6 h, but a clear dose-dependent effect at 24 h. Incubation with dbcAMP likewise increased TSH release after 6–24 h. By contrast, high cellular cAMP levels induced by either forskolin or dbcAMP augmented the TSH response to TRH at an early stage, before any detectable change in unstimulated TSH release. Pretreatment of cells with forskolin led to a parallel upward shift in the subsequent TRH dose-response curve, without a significant change in median effective dose or any change in cellular TSH content.

These findings suggest that cAMP acts to increase the availability of TSH for acute release by TRH by modulation of an intracellular releasable hormone pool, and indicate synergistic interactions between the adenylate cyclase system and the phospholipid-calcium stimulus-release coupling mechanism of TRH.

J. Endocr. (1986) 109, 365–369

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J. BÍRÓ
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Globulin preparations from the sera of 104 untreated patients with Graves's disease have been tested for their thyroid-stimulating antibody (TSAb) activities. Eighty-one of the samples (78%) were positive in the assay for the thyrotrophin-binding inhibitory immunoglobulins, 48 samples (46%) contained human thyroid adenyl cyclase stimulators (HTACS) and 71 (68%) contained human thyroid stimulators (HTS) measured as stimulation of colloid droplet formation in human thyroid slices. All 104 samples were positive in one or other of the assays, 29 (28%) were positive in all three assays and 38 (37%) in two.

All samples were tested for their specific TSH-binding characteristics, 40 (38%) possessed 'B-type' binding sites (previously characterized as TSH-binding sites with low affinity but high capacity for the ligand) but the remaining 64 samples (62%) were no different from normal control samples and had 'A-type' binding sites (high affinity but low capacity binding sites for TSH). Samples without detectable thyrotrophin-binding inhibitory immunoglobulin did not contain B-type TSH-binding globulins. Globulins exhibiting B-type binding were more active in the HTACS and HTS assays.

The B-type TSH-binding globulins have a characteristic, dose-dependent reducing effect on the human thyroid adenyl cyclase stimulation by TSH whereas A-type globulins do not. Globulins exhibiting B-type TSH-binding may therefore have a significant effect on assays for TSAb activities. The methods used to measure TSAb have been reviewed from this point of view.

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S. F. KUKU
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P. HARSOULIS
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J. L. YOUNG
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N. D. QUE
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T. R. FRASER
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SUMMARY

To assess whether urinary immunoassayable thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) differed from pituitary and serum TSH, urinary concentrates from two hypothyroid subjects were analysed by Sephadex G-100 gel filtration.

The elution profiles, measured by radioimmunoassay, were then compared with those of neat sera from hypothyroid patients and human pituitary TSH preparations. The pituitary preparations and the hypothyroid serum were eluted as a comparable single symmetrical peak corresponding to that obtained from a highly purified radio-iodinated human TSH of pituitary origin; no evidence of 'big' TSH emerged. In contrast, however, the material eluted from the hypothyroid urine concentrates not only revealed an asymmetrical peak corresponding to that described above but several other minor peaks eluting later and probably corresponding to fragments of TSH.

When human pituitary TSH was infused into two normal subjects, gel filtration analysis of concentrates from urinary samples obtained during and at fixed periods after the infusion revealed a single peak during the infusion but more peaks appeared with the later samples.

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S. Yamashita
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H. Kimura
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K. Ashizawa
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Y. Nagayama
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H. Hirayu
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M. Izumi
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S. Nagataki
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ABSTRACT

The regulation of thyroglobulin (Tg) and its specific mRNA by interluekin-1 (IL-1) in cultured human thyrocytes was investigated. Specific binding of 125I-labelled IL-1 on thyrocytes was confirmed by solid-phase binding assay. Thyrocytes dispersed from Graves' thyroid tissues were incubated with TSH with or without recombinant human IL-1. TSH stimulated Tg release from cultured human thyrocytes in a dose- and time-dependent manner. Both IL-1α and β inhibited TSH-induced Tg release at concentrations ranging from 0·01 to 10 U/ml. The suppressive activities of IL-1α and β were similar. They did not alter the basal level of Tg release. Unstimulated human thyrocytes did not contain any detectable Tg mRNA, but TSH-stimulated thyrocytes expressed a single species of Tg mRNA (8·5 kb). Both IL-lα and β inhibited TSH-induced Tg mRNA in a dose-responsive manner. IL-1 (10 U/ml) caused maximal suppression of TSH-induced Tg mRNA to nearly basal levels. In contrast, the γ-actin mRNA hybridization signal was not altered in control or treated cells. Furthermore, IL-1 stimulated [3H]thymidine uptake into thyrocyte DNA. These results demonstrate that IL-1 directly inhibits TSH-induced Tg gene expression and provide further support for a functional role of IL-1 as a local modulator of thyroid hormone synthesis.

Journal of Endocrinology (1989) 122, 177–183

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S. D. HOLMES
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SUSAN M. DIRMIKIS
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T. J. MARTIN
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D. S. MUNRO
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The activation of adenylate cyclase and the accumulation of cyclic AMP resulting from the action of human thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), long-acting thyroid stimulator (LATS) or LATS-protector (LATS-P) have been investigated in preparations of human thyroid membranes and slices.

Human TSH significantly increased adenylate cyclase activity in membranes from non-toxic goitres whereas LATS and LATS-P had no consistent effect. However, pre-incubation of goitrous membranes with LATS–immunoglobulin G inhibited the effect of TSH on adenylate cyclase. When thyroid membranes were prepared from the glands of patients with Graves's disease neither TSH nor thyroid-stimulating immunoglobulins (TSIg) stimulated adenylate cyclase significantly.

Whether from non-toxic goitres or thyrotoxic tissue, the concentration of TSH needed to induce half of the maximum response was lower in thyroid slices than in membranes. Both LATS and LATS-P significantly stimulated the accumulation of cyclic AMP in slices of goitrous tissue but thyrotoxic tissue slices did not respond.

In goitrous slices, submaximum concentrations of TSH and TSIg caused additive responses in the accumulation of cyclic AMP but TSIg did not increase the maximum response to TSH.

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