Influence of experimental hyperthyroidism on the adult rat pancreas, small intestine, and blood gastrin levels.

Thyroxine modulates the ontogenic changes of animal tissues. In this study, the effects of experimental hyperthyroidism on the adult rat pancreas, small intestine, and serum gastrin were evaluated. Hyperthyroidism was induced by oral feeding of thyroxine (T4) in increasing dosages (150-450 micrograms/kg body weight; 3 weeks) and controlled by measurements of the circulating hormones. The increase of thyroid hormones in blood (T4 ng/dl: thyroxine-treated rats 10.8 vs. controls 3.3; p less than 0.01; given are means) was accompanied by hypergastrinemia (IR-gastrin pg/ml: T4-treated rats 169 vs. controls 25; p less than 0.05). The T4-treated animals consumed more food but lost about 20 g of their initial body weight. Pancreatic wet weight (g: T4-treatment 1.72 vs. controls 1.42; p less than 0.05), DNA (micrograms/g body weight: T4-treatment 2.42 vs. controls 1.5; p less than 0.05), and protein (micrograms/g body weight: T4-treatment 131.7 vs. controls 63.5; p less than 0.05) were increased, whereas no pronounced influence on pancreatic amylase, trypsin, and chymotrypsin was found. The gut wet weight after thyroxine administration (18.1 g vs. 15.4 g of controls; p less than 0.05) was elevated, but length, DNA, protein, and brush border enzyme activities remained unaltered. Our data demonstrate in adult rats a small but significant trophic response of pancreas and gut to repeated oral thyroxine administration.