Effect of thyroid hormone on metabolic compartmentation in the developing rat brain

1. The effects of treatment with thyroid hormone (tri-iodothyronine) and of neonatal thyroidectomy on the cerebral metabolism of [U-(14)C]leucine were investigated during the period of functional maturation of the rat brain extending from 9 to 25 days after birth. 2. Age-dependent changes in the labelling of brain constituents under normal conditions appear to depend on changes in the availability of blood-borne [(14)C]leucine resulting from differential rates of growth of body and brain; but developmental changes in the pool size of free leucine and in the rates of protein synthesis and oxidation of leucine are also involved. 3. Treatment with thyroid hormone had no significant effect on the conversion of leucine carbon into proteins and lipids; and the age-dependent changes in the concentration and specific radioactivity of leucine were similar to controls. On the other hand there was an acceleration in the conversion of leucine carbon into amino acids associated with the tricarboxylic acid cycle. These observations indicate that leucine oxidation was the process mainly affected. 4. The specific radioactivity of glutamine relative to that of glutamate was used as an index of metabolic compartmentation in brain tissue. Treatment with thyroid hormone advanced the development of metabolic compartmentation. 5. Neonatal thyroidectomy led to a marked decrease in the conversion of leucine carbon into proteins and lipids and to a significant increase in the amount of (14)C combined in the amino acids associated with the tricarboxylic acid cycle. The age-dependent increase in the glutamate/glutamine specific-radioactivity ratio was strongly retarded. 6. The increased conversion of leucine carbon into cerebral amino acids applied to glutamate and aspartate, but not to glutamine and gamma-aminobutyrate. This observation facilitated the understanding of the effects of thyroid deprivation on brain metabolism and provided new evidence for the allocation of morphological structures to the metabolic compartments in brain tissue. 7. In contrast with the marked effects of the thyroid state on metabolic compartmentation, it had relatively little effect on the developmental changes in the concentration of amino acids in the brain. 8. The rate of conversion of leucine carbon into the ;cycle amino acids' both under normal conditions and in thyroid deficiency indicated a special metabolic relationship between glutamate and aspartate on the one hand, and glutamine and gamma-aminobutyrate on the other.