Presence of a soluble inhibitor of thyroid iodination in primary cultures of thyroid cells.

Monolayer cultures of thyroid cells lose their iodide organification capacity a few days before the disappearance of thyroid peroxidase (TPO) activity. The present studies were performed in order to clarify this point. The above mentioned difference was due to the presence of an inhibitor in the monolayer thyroid cells culture, given that total homogenate prepared from confluent cells caused a significant inhibition of activity of TPO from fresh tissue. The inhibitor was localized in the 105000g supernatant of the homogenate of the cell culture, but not in a similar preparation obtained from fresh thyroid. It is thermostable, dialyzable and has a molecular weight of less than 2 kDa. Addition of the inhibitor at the end of the reaction of tyrosine iodination failed to alter the results. This fact suggests that the compound does not destroy the iodinated product. The presence of the cytosolic inhibitor was observed in monolayer thyroid cell cultures of different species (bovine, porcine, rat and human) but not in free follicles cultures.