Thyroid hormones gene regulation

Evans, R. M., Birnberg, N. C., and Rosenfeld, M. G. (1982). Glucocorticoid and thyroid hormones transcriptionally regulate growth hormone gene expression. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 79 7659-7663. 

A comparison of several different steroid receptors with thyroid hormone receptors revealed a remarkable conservation of the amino acid sequence in certain regions, particularly in the DNA-binding domains. This led to the realization that receptors of the steroid or thyroid type are members of a large superfamily of nuclear receptors. Many related members of this family have no known ligand at present and thus are called orphan receptors. The nuclear receptor superfamily plays a critical role in the regulation of gene transcription by hormones, as described in Chapter 43. 

Most of the physiologic activity of thyroid hormones is from the actions of T3. T4 can be thought of primarily as a prohormone. Eighty percent of needed T3 is derived from the conversion of T4 to T3 in peripheral tissue under the influence of tissue deiodinases. These deiodinases allow end organs to produce the amount of T3 needed to control local metabolic functions. These enzymes also catabolize T3 and T4 to biologically inactive metabolites. Thyroid hormones bind to intracellular receptors and regulate the transcription of various genes. 

White, D. M., et al. (1997). Beta-trace gene expression is regulated by a core promoter and a distal thyroid hormone response element. J. Biol. Chem. 272, 14387-93. Yamashima, T., et al. (1997). Prostaglandin D synthase (beta-trace) in human... 

Feng X et al. Thyroid hormone regulation of hepatic genes in vivo detected by complementary DNA microarray. Mol Endocrinol 2000 14 947-955. 

The signal is what starts everything off. Signals take a variety of forms, but for our purposes there are only two. The first type are signals that go into the cell, bind to internal receptors, and exert their effects. Steroid hormones, vitamin D, thyroid hormone, and retinoids are the only members of this class. All of the intracellular receptors ultimately activate the transcription of regulated genes. The common feature of signals that enter the cell is that they are all small lipophilic molecules that can cross the cell membrane. 

Hormonal actions on target neurons are classified in terms of cellular mechanisms of action. Hormones act either via cell-surface or intracellular receptors. Peptide hormones and amino-acid derivatives, such as epinephrine, act on cell-surface receptors that do such things as open ion-channels, cause rapid electrical responses and facilitate exocytosis of hormones or neurotransmitters. Alternatively, they activate second-messenger systems at the cell membrane, such as those involving cAMP, Ca2+/ calmodulin or phosphoinositides (see Chs 20 and 24), which leads to phosphorylation of proteins inside various parts of the target cell (Fig. 52-2A). Steroid hormones and thyroid hormone, on the other hand, act on intracellular receptors in cell nuclei to regulate gene expression and protein synthesis (Fig. 52-2B). Steroid hormones can also affect cell-surface events via receptors at or near the cell surface. 

The normal form of interaction between receptor and DNA requires the hormone to have broken the native structure of the receptor and the dimer to have been formed. That is to say, the receptor-DNA interaction comes after the hormone-receptor interaction. Nevertheless, situations have been described in vitro in which the receptor is able to be previously associated to the HRE. This situation occurs in vivo for the thyroid hormone receptors, in which case it seems that the hormone-free dimer acts as an expression repressor of genes dependent on these hormones (Evans et al. 1988). The arrival of the hormone activates the dimer in situ and inverts its role as regulator. 

Receptor-effector mechanisms include (1) enzymes with catalytic activities, (2) ion channels that gate the transmembrane flux of ions (ionotropic receptors), (3) G protein-coupled receptors that activate intracellular messengers (metabotropic receptors), and (4) cytosolic receptors that regulate gene transcription. Cytosolic receptors are a specific mechanism of many steroid and thyroid hormones. The ionotropic and metabotropic receptors are discussed in relevance to specific neurotransmitters in chapter 2. 

The large group of steroid, retinoic acid (retinoid), and thyroid hormones exert at least part of their effects by a mechanism fundamentally different from that of other hormones they act in the nucleus to alter gene expression. We therefore discuss their mode of action in detail in Chapter 28, along with other mechanisms for regulating gene expression. Here we give a brief overview. 

FIGURE 12-40 General mechanism by which steroid and thyroid hormones, retinoids, and vitamin D regulate gene expression. The details of transcription and protein synthesis are discussed in Chapters 26 and 27. At least some steroids also act through plasma membrane receptors by a completely different mechanism. 

Regulation of Specific Genes by Steroid and Thyroid Hormones... 

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