Deiodination of L-thyroxine and its activity on the oxidation in vitro of reduced nicotinamide-adenine dinucleotide by peroxidase plus hydrogen peroxide.

When l-thyroxine activates the oxidation of NADH by peroxidase+H(2)O(2), little removal of phenolic-ring iodine atoms becomes apparent until most of the NADH has been oxidized, after which it increases markedly. This extensive deiodination is accompanied by loss of the ability of thyroxine to catalyse the oxidation of NADH by peroxidase+H(2)O(2). The slight deiodination observed before the appearance of extensive deiodination is somewhat higher when the effect of thyroxine on NADH oxidation is greater, and lower when thyroxine has exerted a slighter effect. ICN (but not I(2) or thyronine) catalyses NADH oxidation, in both the presence and the absence of peroxidase+H(2)O(2): thyroxine+peroxidase+H(2)O(2) are thus comparable with ICN alone in their effects on NADH oxidation. The obvious conclusion from the above observation, namely that the active moiety is the halogen liberated from thyroxine (or ICN) is, however, not directly supported by some of the results obtained by measuring the degree of deiodination of thyroxine in the system. In an attempt to reconcile some apparently contradictory conclusions, it is suggested that, when thyroxine activates oxidation of NADH by peroxidase+H(2)O(2), the diphenyl ether structure is undergoing cyclic deiodination and iodination. This would be accompanied by the maintenance in the reaction medium of an oxidized form of iodine, similar to that liberated by ICN, which would be the actual active moiety, until the NADH concentration becomes so low that the diphenyl ether structure is ruptured oxidatively. An alternative explanation is that thyroxine is oxidized to a form that either oxidizes NADH or loses iodine in competing reactions.