Radioactive Iodine as an Indicator in Thyroid Physiology Iii. Iodine Collection as a Criterion of Thyroid Function in Rabbits Injected With Thyrotropic Hormone1

IN PREVIOUS PUBLICATIONS (I, 2) we have discussed the collection of iodine by the thyroid in short intervals after injection. The experiments described covered both normal and hyperplastic glands. The thyroid iodine collection was referred to the size and gross appearance of the gland, and to the method of treatment of the animal. Those experiments, while quantitative, involved parameters which were known not to be uniquely or specifically indicative of thyroid function. The data served, however, to establish approximately the iodine collection by the gland in various functional states. The present experiments were designed to correlate the iodine collection with known criteria of thyroid function, in particular the basal metabolic rate and the mean acinar cell height. This paper will be concerned with rabbits injected with anterior pituitary thyrotropic hormone. The standard dose of thyrotropic hormone was nominally 15 guinea pig units of anterior pituitary thyrotropic hormone,2 administered subcutaneous...