Metabolic response to short periods of starvation in hypo and hyperthyroid rats.

Abstract

1) Thyoridectomized rats were fed with a low iodine diet, injected daily with 0, 0.1, 1.8 or 25 µg of L-thyroxine/100 g body wt., and compared with intact controls. 2) Plasma protein-bound iodine was decreased in the rats given the 0 and 0.1 µg doses, unchanged in those given the 1.8 µg doses, unchanged in those given the 1.8 µg dose increased in those given the 25 µg one. 3) The liver content of DNA-P, phospholipid-P, proteins and fatty acids was decreased in the rats that did not receive thyr.oxine, practically recuperated in those receiving 0.1 µg and normal in those given 1.8 or 25 µg of thyroxine. 4) 3 h of starvation produced a reduction in the liver content of total fatty acids that disappeared after 24 h. 5) When fod, liver glycogen concentration was low in the rats given 25 µg of thyroxine. 6) With starvation, the fall in liver glycogen and blood glucose, and the rise in liver acetylCoA and citrate and blood glycerol concentrations were faster in the thyroidectomized rats that did not receive thyroxine than in the other groups. 7) The rise in plasma free fatty acid and blood ketone bodies concentrations were similar in all the groups, the greater level of the first parameter being observed after 6 h of starvation in the rats given 25 µg of thyroxine and in the second one after 24 h in the rats given either 0.1, 1.8 or 25 µg of thyroxine. 8) The rapid decrease in the availability of carbohydrate stores with starvation in the thyroidcctomized rats could be responsible for their fast call for lipid utilization. The slower response to fasting in the hyperthyroid animals is probably a consequence of their reduced amount of endogenous substrates to be mobilized.