At thermoneutrality, acute thyroxine-induced thermogenesis and pyrexia are independent of UCP1

Abstract

Objective

Hyperthyroidism is associated with increased metabolism (“thyroid thermogenesis”) and elevated body temperature, often referred to as hyperthermia. Uncoupling protein-1 (UCP1) is the protein responsible for nonshivering thermogenesis in brown adipose tissue. We here examine whether UCP1 is essential for thyroid thermogenesis.

Methods

We investigated the significance of UCP1 for thyroid thermogenesis by using UCP1-ablated (UCP1 KO) mice. To avoid confounding factors from cold-induced thermogenesis and to approach human conditions, the experiments were conducted at thermoneutrality, and to resemble conditions of endogenous release, thyroid hormone (thyroxine, T4) was injected peripherally.

Results

Both short-term and chronic thyroxine treatment led to a marked increase in metabolism that was largely UCP1-independent. Chronic thyroxine treatment led to a 1–2 °C increase in body temperature. This increase was also UCP1-independent and was maintained even at lower ambient temperatures. Thus, it was pyrexia, i.e. a defended increase in body temperature, not hyperthermia. In wildtype mice, chronic thyroxine treatment induced a large relative increase in the total amounts of UCP1 in the brown adipose tissue (practically no UCP1 in brite/beige adipose tissue), corresponding to an enhanced thermogenic response to norepinephrine injection. The increased UCP1 amount had minimal effects on thyroxine-induced thermogenesis and pyrexia.

Conclusions

These results establish that thyroid thermogenesis is a UCP1-independent process. The fact that the increased metabolism coincides with elevated body temperature and thus with accelerated kinetics accentuates the unsolved issue of the molecular background for thyroid thermogenesis.

Highlights

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  Acute thyroxine (T4) treatment increases metabolic rate markedly, even in UCP1 KO mice.

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  T4 treatment increases body temperature by 1–2 °C, even in UCP1 KO mice.

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  The increased body temperature is not hyperthermia but pyrexia (a regulated increase).

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  Prolonged T4 treatment recruits brown fat but this only marginally augments thermogenesis.

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  UCP1 activity is not the molecular mechanism for thyroid thermogenesis.