Reciprocal effects of thyroxine and triiodothyronine on their deiodination by rat tissues in vitro

The reciprocal effects of loading doses of thyroxine (T4) or triiodothyronine (T3) on the deiodination of their 125iodine-labelled isotopes by rat muscle and liver homogenates were studied. In 21 experiments muscle homogenates deiodinated a mean 45.0% of a tracer dose of [125I]T4 and 18.0% of [125I]T3. On addition of graded amounts of nonradioactive T4 or T3 the percentual deiodination of both labelled hormones progressively declined. This effect was significantly greater in homogenates incubated with non-radioactive T4, thus reflecting a stronger affinity of this hormone for muscle deiodinating sites. This correlate with the greater displacment of [125I]T3 as revealed by the percentage of recovered labelled hormone. In 18 experiments liver homogenates deiodinated a mean 14.6% of a tracer amount of [125I]T4 and 8.5% of [125I]T3. The addition of a T4- or a T3-load was followed by a smaller decrease in percentual deiodination of both labelled hormones as compared to muscle homogenates. Unlike the effects observed in muscle, the breakdown of [125I]T4 and [125I]T3 by liver homogenates was equally affected by similar amounts of stable T4 or T3. It is concluded that in the present in vitro system T4 and T3 share cellular sites of deiodination in rat muscle and liver and that, at least in muscle, which constitutes over one-half of the rat body weight T4 appears to be preferentially deiodinated.