Thyrotrophin-releasing hormone (TRH) and hormone secretion from the follicular and C-cells of perfused dog thyroid lobes

Recently we found small amounts of TRH immunoreactivity in the thyroid gland of dogs and pigs. In the present study we investigated if exogenous TRH influences the release of T4, T3 and cAMP from the follicular cells, and calcitonin and somatostatin from the C-cells of perfused dog thyroid lobes. 10(-5) mol/l TRH inhibited the TSH induced iodothyronine and cAMP release from the thyroid while 10(-8) mol/l TRH had no effect. The relative proportions of T4 and T3 in thyroid secretion were not altered by TRH infusion. TRH did not influence the basal or the Ca++ induced release of somatostatin and calcitonin. Hence TRH has a direct inhibitory effect on the hormone secretion from thyroidal follicular cells. This opens the possibility that TRH in the thyroid participate in the regulation of thyroid hormone secretion. Even though the concentration of TRH found to be effective is high our results may indicate that TRH in the thyroid participates in the regulation of thyroid hormone secretion as an antagonist to TSH.