l-Thyroxine on acetate conversion to cholesterol by livers of hypophysectomized rats

¹ Department of Physiology, University of California, Berkeley, California

The effects of daily injections of 3 and 6 µg of thyroxine to normal and hypophysectomized rats, for 14 days, on the incorporation of C¹⁴ of acetate-1-C¹⁴ into fatty acids and cholesterol by slices of their livers were studied. The hormone administrations had no effect on the percentages of the C¹⁴ recovered as fatty acids and cholesterol in the experiments with livers excised from normal rats. In those with livers from hypophysectomized rats, however, the hormone treatments increased the incorporation of the C¹⁴ into cholesterol to a level about tenfold greater than that observed in normal rats.