Effects of thyrotropin on thyroglobulin exocytosis and iodination in the rat thyroid gland.

Rats, pretreated with thyroxine for 2 days, were given one or two iv injections of 500 mU of TSH; in some groups the second TSH dose was replaced by 0.75 micronmol isoproternol. The effects of the thyroid stimulators on the following parameters were studied: the number of exocytotic vesicles in the follicle cells; the incorporation of 125I into thyroid proteins, measured over periods of 5 min; and the thyroidal cAMP contents. At 2 h after TSH administration, a second dose of TSH failed to stimulate iodination while at 8 h the iodination response was "normal". Two hours after TSH the follicle cells contained practically no exocytotic vesicles but at 8 h they had a full supply of vesicles, and this was emptied by the second TSH injection. THE CAMP content was less increased by the second TSH injection than by the first one, but the stimulatory effect of the second TSH dose on cAMP was the same at 2 h and at 8 h; this indicates that the lack of iodination response at 2 h was not simply due to blocking of TSH receptors. Isoproternol, which acts on other receptors than does TSH, cause a similar cAMP increase incontrols and at 2 h and 8 h after TSH, but stimulated iodination only in controls and at 8 h after TSH; this supported the conclusion that the lack of iodination response to a second TSH dose at 2 h was not due to impairment of the adenylate cyclase-cAMP system. These observations taken together strongly indicate that a rapid iodination response to TSH depends on stimulated exocytosis which, in turn, requires a pool of exocytotic vesicles in the follicle cells. Such a coupling between exocytosis and iodination seems appropriate since by exocytosis uniodinated thyroglobulin and membrane, showing peroxidase activity histochemically, are delivered to the site of iodination, the apical cell surface.