Kinetics of thyroglobulin iodination and of hormone synthesis catalysed by thyroid peroxidase. Role of iodide in the coupling reaction.

The kinetics of tyrosine iodination and of thyroxine synthesis in thyroglobulin, different reactions catalyzed by the same enzyme (thyroid peroxidase), have been compared. Thyroxine synthesis always began after a lag period of 3-5 min. This lag was constant whatever the rate of iodination; this rate of iodination was increased either by increasing the concentration of iodide or enzyme or by decreasing the concentration of thyroglobulin. Increasing the rate of iodination resulted in increasing the number of iodine atoms incorporated during the lag period. Thus the lag observed for thyroxine synthesis was constant and did not depend on the fact that free iodide or non-iodinated tyrosine residues of thyroglobulin were exhausted before thyroxine synthesis occurred. Finally, it appeared that, whatever the explanation of the lag, the enzyme catlyzes thyroid hormone synthesis at a slower rate than iodination. The existence of a lag also allowed us to prepare thyroglobulin samples with different iodine contents but without thyroid hormones. Thus iodination and thyroxine synthesis could be studied independently and the following results were obtained. 1. Iodotyrosine residues which can couple to form thytoxine are made considerably before coupling occurs. 2. H2O2 is required for coupling of these hormonogenic residues; thus the coupling reaction requires enzymic oxidation of the iodotyrosine residues. 3. In addition a strict requirement for iodide was needed for coupling; the requirement was dependent on the concentration of iodide. Thus iodide, a substrate of the iodination reaction, may also have other effects on the activity of thyroid peroxidase.