Effect of substance P on thyrotropin secretion from the pituitary gland in the rat.

The role of substance P (SP) on thyrotropin (TSH) secretion was investigated in ovariectomized (OVX) female, estrogen-primed OVX, and normal male rats. Third ventricular administration of SP induced a significant increase in plasma TSH levels when compared to control animals in E-primed OVX rats (p less than 0.001). The plasma TSH levels increased in a dose-related manner and reached maximum levels at 10 min after injection. In contrast, intraventricularly injected SP failed to alter plasma TSH levels in both OVX rats and normal male rats. Intravenous administration of SP dramatically stimulated TSH release in E-primed OVX rats (p less than 0.001), whereas SP had no effect on the release of TSH when injected in OVX rats and normal male rats. To investigate any direct action of SP on TSH release from the anterior pituitary gland, synthetic SP was incubated with dispersed anterior pituitary cells harvested from E-primed OVX rats and normal male rats. SP, in the dose range between 10(-8) M and 10(-6) M, failed to alter the release of TSH into the culture medium in vitro. These findings indicate that SP has a stimulatory role in the control of TSH release by an action on the hypothalamus but only in estrogen-primed rats.