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. 1970 Mar;206(3):701–710. doi: 10.1113/jphysiol.1970.sp009038

The effect of diet and acute starvation on the deiodination of thyroxine and triiodothyronine in the thyroidectomized rat

P W Nathanielsz
PMCID: PMC1348673  PMID: 5498513

Abstract

1. General agreement exists that the level of thyroid function is depressed by starvation. The virtually complete cessation of biliary-faecal thyroxine loss in the starved animal makes the significance of this reduction difficult to assess in physiological terms.

2. Deiodination of [131I]thyroxine was investigated in thyroidectomized rats. Thus central feed-back effects were eliminated and the changes in peripheral utilization of thyroxine could be observed. The simultaneous use of [125I] sodium iodide permitted changes in renal handling of iodide to be taken into consideration.

3. Rats fed oxoid (Oxo Ltd. diet 41 B) deiodinated a significantly greater proportion of thyroxine in the 24 hr after injection of a tracer dose of [131I]thyroxine than did the starved or glucose-fed rat. [131I]triiodothyronine was also probably deiodinated at a faster rate in oxoid-fed rats than in starved or glucose-fed rats.

4. Thyroxine was deiodinated at a faster rate by starved rats than by rats fed glucose.

5. Thyroxine disappeared significantly faster from the blood in oxoid-fed than in the starved or glucose-fed rat. Thyroxine also disappeared faster from the blood in the starved rat than in the glucose-fed rat over 24 hr.

6. These results are discussed in relation to previous findings of depressed pituitary—thyroid function in starvation.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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