Abstract

Suppression of two major phenobarbital-inducible cytochrome P-450s, P450IIB1 and P450IIB2, by thyroid hormone was studied and compared with growth hormone (GH)-induced suppression in rats in vivo and hepatocytes in primary culture in vitro. Treatment of adult male rats with 50 micrograms/kg triiodothyronine (T3) reduced the constitutively expressed amounts of P450IIB1 (up to 1 pmol/mg of protein) and P450IIB2 (2-5 pmol/mg of protein) to 42% and 3% of their levels in nontreated controls. Thyroidectomy increased the hepatic contents of P450IIB2 (to levels of 50-80 pmol/mg of protein) and, to a lesser extent, P450IIB1 (1-5 pmol/mg of protein) in male and female rats. Supplement of T3 to thyroidectomized rats reversed the increased contents to levels similar to those observed in normal rats. Hypophysectomy also increased both P450IIB1 and P450IIB2 protein, and their levels in both sexes were similar to that of P450IIB2 in thyroidectomized rats. Treatment of hypophysectomized rats with T3 as well as human GH suppressed hepatic contents of P450IIB1 and P450IIB2. In a hepatocyte culture including 2 mM phenobarbital, T3 and GH suppressed both P450IIB1 and P450IIB2. Other thyroid hormone derivatives, including thyroxine, D-T3, and reversed T3, also showed suppressive effects, in parallel with the potencies for their stimulatory action that have been reported. These results indicate that thyroid hormone may suppress both P450IIB1 and P450IIB2 by a direct effect on the liver, but not by an indirect effect through the modulation of pituitary GH synthesis. The high susceptibility of hepatic P450IIB2 to thyroid hormone-induced suppression also indicates that constitutive and phenobarbital-induced levels of P450IIB2 are suppressively regulated preferentially by thyroid hormone, in contrast to the high susceptibility to GH of P450IIB1 in rat liver. In addition, a difference in the suppressive mechanisms of thyroid hormone and GH was suggested by the difference in susceptibility to cycloheximide.