IN EXPERIMENTS carried out in this laboratory b’enign and metastasizing adenomatous tumors of the thyroid gland of rats have been found following prolonged administration (over one year) of propylthiouracil. Similar results have been reported previously by other investigators with thicurea (Purves and Griesbach, 1947; Money and Rawson, 1947), and with thiouracil (Dalton, Morris and Dubnik, 1948; Money and Rawson, 1950). The pathogenesis of the tumors isprobably related to an increased production of thyrotropic hormone by the anterior pituitary over a prolonged period. The production or release of other hormones may also be affected, withresulting changes in other endocrine glands. Ferguson and Sellers (1949) found that the concurrent administration of iodide with thiouracil for short periods (2–6 weeks) lessened the goitrogenic effect and resulted in thyroid glands which were 20–30% lighter than those produced by the goitrogen alone. They attributed this effect to the antithyrotropic action of iodide.
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Sellers et al. (1953) studied this question.