[The role of the adenohypophysis in connection with changes in the thyroid caused by old age (author's transl)].

The findings indicate that changes caused by old age in the mechanism of the TSH action on the thyroid occur in the phases which are connected with the storage of adenosine triphosphate. That leads one to assume that changes caused by old age in the thyroid responsiveness to the action of TSH are probably conditioned by the following phenomena: 1. the decrease in the receptors "pro tropes" hormone and/or the disturbance of the correlations between TSH and the receptor 2. disturbance of the activity of the adenylocyclase 3. the phospho-diesterase activation.