Effect of iopanoic acid on basal and thyrotropin-stimulated thyroid hormone levels in suckling rat pups.

We proposed that basal and thyrotropin (TSH)-stimulated thyroid hormone levels of rat pups would be altered in the presence of iopanoic acid (IA), a radiographic contrast agent which competitively inhibits T4-to-T3 conversion, and that the nature of these changes would further depend upon the route of TSH administration in a manner distinct from that reported in adults. To test this hypothesis, litters from 24 Sprague-Dawley female rats were adjusted to 8 pups each. On day 5, 80 pups received IA (2.5 mg/100 g body weight) injections. On day 8, control and IA pups were further subdivided, and given bovine TSH (bTSH) either by subcutaneous injection or by intragastric gavage (to simulate milk-borne TSH intake), and then sacrificed 0, 1.5, or 3 hours later. We found significantly higher T4 and reverse-T3 (rT3) levels in IA-treated pups, but IA had no effect on basal or TSH-stimulated T3 levels attained, regardless of route of bTSH administration or time post-treatment. Our data demonstrate that the effects of IA on T4 and rT3 levels in the immature rat are comparable to those observed in adult rats and humans, but that the marked depression of T3 levels found in IA-treated adults does not occur in the 8-day old rat pup. We speculate that the IA-treated suckling pup's ability to sustain normal basal T3 levels and generate elevated T3 concentrations in response to TSH stimulation may reflect the activity during development of a T4-5'-deiodinase relatively resistant to competitive inhibition by this drug.