The effect of diet and acute starvation on the deiodination of thyroxine and triiodothyronine in the thyroidectomized rat.

1. General agreement exists that the level of thyroid function is depressed by starvation. The virtually complete cessation of biliary-faecal thyroxine loss in the starved animal makes the significance of this reduction difficult to assess in physiological terms.2. Deiodination of [(131)I]thyroxine was investigated in thyroidectomized rats. Thus central feed-back effects were eliminated and the changes in peripheral utilization of thyroxine could be observed. The simultaneous use of [(125)I] sodium iodide permitted changes in renal handling of iodide to be taken into consideration.3. Rats fed oxoid (Oxo Ltd. diet 41 B) deiodinated a significantly greater proportion of thyroxine in the 24 hr after injection of a tracer dose of [(131)I]thyroxine than did the starved or glucose-fed rat. [(131)I]triiodothyronine was also probably deiodinated at a faster rate in oxoid-fed rats than in starved or glucose-fed rats.4. Thyroxine was deiodinated at a faster rate by starved rats than by rats fed glucose.5. Thyroxine disappeared significantly faster from the blood in oxoid-fed than in the starved or glucose-fed rat. Thyroxine also disappeared faster from the blood in the starved rat than in the glucose-fed rat over 24 hr.6. These results are discussed in relation to previous findings of depressed pituitary-thyroid function in starvation.