Thyroid hormone-dependent redistribution of the 55-kilodalton monomer of protein disulfide isomerase in cultured glial cells.

In addition to the effects of thyroid hormone that are mediated through interaction with chromatin-associated receptors, T4 modulates the activity of the cellular content of the membrane-associated protein type II iodothyronine 5'-deiodinase (5'D-II) by regulating its degradation through an actin-dependent extranuclear mechanism. Under the influence of thyroid hormone, the substrate-binding subunit of 5'D-II is translocated from the plasma membrane to an intracellular microfilament-associated pool. In glial cells, a 55-kilodalton (kDa) protein (glial-p55), which was shown to be identical to the 55-kDa monomer of protein disulfide isomerase (PDI) also demonstrates a similar T4-dependent association to the F-actin microfilaments. To explore the role of glial-p55 in the extranuclear effect of thyroid hormone in glial cells, the effects of thyroid hormone on the subcellular localization of glial-p55 were further examined. The current study demonstrates the presence of two pools of glial-p55. While the majority of glial-p55 is associated with endoplasmic reticulum and represents PDI, approximately 25% of glial-p55 is cytosolic in the absence of thyroid hormone. Cytosolic glial-p55 is lost from the cells after mild permeabilization with saponin, and treatment of cells with T4 causes the shift of glial-p55 from the cytosolic pool to the subcellular fractions that contain the actin cytoskeleton. Crude microsomal preparations were prepared which contain membranes, microfilaments, and other particulate cell structures. In the absence of thyroid hormone, glial cells lack an intact actin cytoskeleton, and glial-p55 is easily removed from these preparations by conditions that remove extrinsic membrane proteins like PDI, such as alkaline pH and detergent extraction. In contrast, glial-p55 is not removed from the crude microsomes prepared from thyroid hormone-replete glial cells that contain an intact actin cytoskeleton. Since previous work in our laboratory indicated that glial-p55 becomes actin associated in a thyroid-dependent manner along with the substrate-binding subunit of 5'D-II, this study suggests that the 55-kDa monomer of PDI may play a role in the thyroid hormone-dependent regulation of actin polymerization and the degradation of 5'D-II.