Thyroid hormones homeostasis in rats refed after short-term and prolonged fasting

Effects of starvation on thyroid hormone homeostasis were usually determined after 2 or more days of fasting, however, both in man and in rodents, natural feeding cycles comprise far shorter fasting periods. Therefore serum levels of T4, FT4, T3, FT3 and rT3 were measured in rats refed chow diet for 1, 4, 8 or 24 hours after 14 or 48 hours of starvation. Both short-term (14 h) and long-term fasting (48 h) decreased body weight and serum glucose level. Short-term fast decreased serum FT3 and did not change serum levels of T4, FT4, T3 and rT3. Total T3 and reverse T3 increased after one and 4 hours, free T3 after 4 hours and total T4 after 4 and 8 hours of refeeding. Percent of FT3 did not change after short-term fast, declined after 1 and 4 hours of refeeding, and normalised thereafter. Prolonged starvation (48 h) decreased serum T4, T3, FT3 and % FT3 with no changes in FT4 and rT3. After 24 hours of refeeding only FT3 and % FT3 returned to control levels while total T4 and total T3 were still diminished, and reverse T3 levels did not change. The results suggest that the length of preceding fasting period may strongly influence thyroid hormone homeostasis during fasted-to-fed transition.