Influence of hormones on glycogen and glucose metabolism in embryonic chick intestine.

Previous studies on the development of embryonic intestine in vitro have revealed a stimulation of epithelial differentiation by the hormones hydrocortisone (HC) and thyroxine (T4). To determine whether these hormones also influence epithelial metabolism, duodena from 14-day-old chicken embryos were cultured for 72 h in the absence of hormones (controls) or in the presence of 1 nM T4 or 1 microM HC. In control cultures, glycogen accumulated within the duodenal epithelium to the level found at 17 days in vivo. T4 reduced glycogen accumulation to 34% of control values, whereas HC increased epithelial glycogen content by 45%. These hormonal effects were due, in part, to modulation of glycogen degradation. In T4 cultures, glucose oxidation activities within the epithelial layer and submucosal tissue were 300 and 140% of control values, respectively, and glucose utilization (removal from the culture medium) was increased. HC significantly decreased both glucose oxidation activity within the submucosal tissue and glucose utilization. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that HC regulates the early phase of epithelial differentiation that is characterized by low metabolic rate and accumulation of energy stores, whereas T4 elicits the prehatching phase of differentiation that is correlated with an increase in metabolic rate and utilization of stored products.