The role of sodium transport in thyroid thermogenesis.

The hypothesis that augmentation of Na+ transport activity mediates a significant fraction of thyroid thermogenesis is supported by studies on a wide range of target tissues. Recent criticisms based on theoretical and experimental considerations do not appear to negate the validity of this concept. A basic difficulty that remains to be resolved, however, is the development of techniques for assessing the contribution of the Na+ transport pathway to energy turnover in the intact animal.