Hormonal control of a low Km (type II) iodothyronine 5'-deiodinase in cultured NB41A3 mouse neuroblastoma cells.

The central nervous system manifests complex homeostatic mechanisms for the maintenance of thyroid hormone economy. The present studies used the NB41A3 mouse neuroblastoma cell line as a model system to study the hormonal regulation of the enzymatic conversion of T4 to T3 in neural tissue. NB41A3 cells manifested a thiol-dependent 6-n-propyl-2-thiouracil-insensitive iodothyronine 5'-deiodinase (I5'D) with a Km for T4 of approximately 10 nM. I5'D activity was increased 2- to 4-fold in cells grown in thyroid hormone-depleted medium. Exposure of cells in situ to various thyroid hormones resulted in a rapid dose-dependent inhibition of enzyme activity with the following order of potency: rT3 = T4 greater than T3. The potent inhibitory effect of rT3 on I5'D activity could not be attributed to substrate competition with T4 in the reaction assay. The addition of dexamethasone (2 X 10(-7) M) to the culture medium also inhibited I5'D activity by 46 +/- 6% (+/- SE; n = 4 experiments; P less than 0.02), whereas insulin and epinephrine were without effect. In other experiments, saturation analysis using a purified preparation of isolated nuclei from NB41A3 cells demonstrated the presence of saturable, high affinity nuclear binding sites which had a Kd value for T3 of 0.13 +/- 0.05 nM and a maximum binding capacity of 0.13 +/- 0.01 pmol T3/mg DNA. These studies demonstrate that NB41A3 cells have a low Km (type II) I5'D process and nuclear T3-binding sites very similar to those previously described in the rat central nervous system. I5'D activity in this cell line appears to be regulated by multiple serum factors, including thyroid hormones and glucocorticoids. The potent regulatory effect of rT3 and T4 suggests that T3 formation by thyroid hormones in neural tissue is controlled by a unique cellular mechanism independent of the nuclear T3 receptor. Since tissue and plasma concentrations of T4 are considerably higher than those of rT3, the former hormone is likely to be the principal thyroid hormone regulating this enzymatic process.