Effect of Thyroxine on the Content of Cardiolipin

Benlan Ye, Qi Hou, Fan Guo, Ting Sun, Hailong Jiang, Wei Jiang

Hyperthyroidism is a common disease. It has been well recognized that once thyroid hormones enter cells through membrane transporter proteins it binds its receptor and interacts with specific sequences of DNA in the promoters of responsive genes, modulating gene expression. However, it is not clear if phospholipids play any part in the procedure of hyperthyroidism. Some reports showed that cardiolipin has close relationship with energy metabolism. And, hyperthyroidism is a high metabolic disorder. Therefore, in this paper we studied the relationship between thyroxine and the content of cardiolipin. The results showed that thyroxine increases the content of cardiolipin both in vivo and in vitro. It suggested that increase cardiolipin in hyperthyroidism is a direct effect of thyroxine and not mediated by other neurohumoral factor.