Lesions of some central nervous structures result in altered pituitary-thyroid response to acute decrease of blood thyroid hormone level

Abstract

Eight groups (3--6 animals each) of rats weighing 350--400 g were subjected to electrolytic lesions of various parts of habenular, thalamic and hypothalamic areas of brain. On the 6th day after the lesion the level of blood thyroid hormone was acutely decreased with the aid of isovolemic exchange transfusion (IET) of thyroid hormone free blood suspension. The level of thyroxine (T4) in plasma was measured before and during 180 min after IET with the aid of specific radioimmunoassay and the changes of its post-transfusion level were evaluated. It was found that in three groups of animals bearing large bilateral lesions either in lateral ventral thalamus or in a central inferior thalamus the response of T4 level during the post-transfusion period is similar to that found in intact control groups from previous experiments. This consists in an increase of T4 level nearly to the initial value within about 120--150 min after IET. In contrast, there was only a slight post-transfusion increase of T4 level in one group with small central lesion in medial superior thalamus and no increase in two groups bilaterally lesioned in habenular area and in another two groups lesioned either in a central part of dorsal hypothalamus or in a central dorsal part of ventral basal hypothalamus. It was concluded that some parts of brain may be involved in managing the appropriate response of pituitary-thyroid axis to acute decrease of thyroid hormone level, no plausible explanation of the mechanism ofthe observed phenomena being offered.