Faculty Bibliography

The thyroid hormone receptor is a nuclear-associated protein which appears to mediate the actions of 3,5,3'-triiodo-L-thyronine (L-T3) and 3,5,3',5'-tetraiodo-L-thyronine (L-T4) in mammalian cells. In a previous study we reported that N-2-diazo-3,3,3-trifluoropropionyl-3,5,3'-triiodo-L-thyronine (L-T3-PAL) serves as an effective photoaffinity label probe of the receptor in GH1 cells, a growth hormone producting rat pituitary cell line. Irradiation of cells at 254 nm covalently cross-links L-[125I]T3-PAL to two molecular weight (Mr) nuclear receptor forms, an abundant 47,000 Mr component and a less abundant 57,000 Mr species (Pascual, A., Casanova, J., and Samuels, H. H. (1982) J. Biol. Chem. 257, 9640-9647). In this study we have explored a number of possible interrelationships of the different Mr receptor forms. Denaturing gel electrophoresis and autoradiography indicates that the 57,000 Mr form is a doublet species which differ in Mr by 1,000 to 2,000. The various receptor forms are not an artifact of the L-[125I]T3-PAL probe, and identical forms can be labeled at 310 nm using underivatized L-[125I]T4 with a 15-fold lower coupling efficiency. The 57,000 and 47,000 Mr receptor forms are not generated by indiscriminate proteolysis, UV peptide cleavage, or zero length protein-protein cross-linking by irradiation at 254 nm. Micrococcal nuclease excises both the 57,000 and 47,000 Mr forms, and receptor is not identified in the residual nuclear matrix fraction. Receptor is also not detected in the cytoplasmic fraction. By coupling dense amino acid labeling and photoaffinity labeling of receptor we determined a half-life of 2.4 h for the 57,000 Mr species and 5.6 h for the 47,000 Mr form while both species have similar relative synthetic rates. n-Butyrate has been previously shown to decrease receptor levels in GH1 cells. We demonstrate that n-butyrate decreases receptor levels primarily by shortening the half-life of the 47,000 Mr form

Using cultured GH1 cells, we reported that stimulation (3- to 5-fold) of growth hormone synthesis and mRNA levels by thyroid hormone is mediated by a chromatin-associated receptor. Thyroid hormone also elicits a rapid reduction of homologous receptor in GH1 cells primarily by decreasing the synthetic rate of receptor ( Raaka , B. M., and Samuels , H. H. (1981) J. Biol. Chem. 256, 6883-6889). Without 3,5,3'-triiodo-L-thyronine (L-T3), glucocorticoid agonists induced a limited and delayed effect while L-T3 + glucocorticoid synergistically stimulated the response an additional 2- to 4-fold compared to L-T3. In this study, we utilized GC cells, a related cell line, to compare the abundance of L-T3-receptor complexes to the rate of growth hormone mRNA synthesis and gene transcription. Gene transcription was assessed by in vitro labeling of nuclei with [alpha-32P]UTP which were derived from cells incubated with hormone(s), while mRNA synthesis was determined in intact cells by [3H]uridine labeling. Labeled growth hormone mRNA and gene transcripts were quantitated by filter hybridization to plasmid containing growth hormone cDNA. L-T3 rapidly decreased receptor levels in GC cells with kinetics similar to that in GH1 cells. Both the L-T3 and the synergistic L-T3 + glucocorticoid stimulation of growth hormone mRNA synthesis changed in parallel with the level of L-T3-receptor complexes. Glucocorticoid hormones alone elicited a variable response which resulted in minimal stimulation or inhibition of growth hormone mRNA synthesis or gene transcription rates. No apparent lag was identified between the kinetics of L-T3 binding to receptor and stimulation of growth hormone gene transcription. L-T3 stimulated growth hormone gene transcription rates maximally in 1 h which then progressively decreased in parallel with L-T3-receptor levels. Using [3H]uridine pulse-chase, growth hormone mRNA was found to have a half-life of approximately 50 h in agreement with the decay curve of growth hormone production of deinduced cells. Our studies suggest that regulation of the growth hormone response is predominantly determined by positive control of growth hormone gene transcription which is proportional to the concentration of thyroid hormone-receptor complexes

The cellular actions of the thyroid hormones L-thyroxine and L-triiodothyronine are mediated by the association of hormone with a chromatin-associated receptor. In cultured GH1 cells, a hormone-responsive rat pituitary cell line, thyroid hormone decreases the concentration of its receptor at early incubation times by reducing the accumulation of newly synthesized receptor. In this study, we demonstrate that cholera toxin also reduces the amount of nuclear receptor in GH1 cells in a time- and dose-dependent fashion, without altering the affinity of the receptor for hormone. The reduction of receptor mediated by cholera toxin is not secondary to a generalized inhibition of cell protein synthesis or cell replication rates and this effect can be abolished by pretreatment of the cholera toxin with soluble ganglioside II3-alpha-N- acetylneuraminosylgangliotetraosylceramide . This effect requires an intact cholera toxin molecule and does not occur at similar concentrations of the membrane-binding B subunit of cholera toxin. In order to study the influence of cholera toxin on thyroid hormone receptor turnover, we have used a dense amino acid-labeling technique. The results indicate that cholera toxin does not change the half-life of receptor, but decreases the rate of appearance of newly synthesized receptor. This decreased rate completely accounts for the lowered steady state receptor levels. The extent of cAMP stimulation by cholera toxin does not correlate with the extent of receptor reduction and forskolin, which stimulates cAMP 25- to 500-fold, does not decrease thyroid hormone receptor abundance. These studies suggest that cholera toxin modulates receptor levels by a mechanism(s) that is not mediated by cAMP in GH1 cells