Plasma membranes of cells from retroorbital tissue have been prepared from the Harderian glands of guinea pigs and have been characterized as being reasonably free of other subcellular structures by electron microscopy and by enzyme-marker analyses. Both bovine thyrotropin and a proteolytic derivative of bovine thyrotropin with exophthalmogenic activity but without thyroid-stimulating activity specifically bind to these membranes. Gammaglobulin from the sera of patients with malignant exophthalmos increases the binding of both pituitary factors, whereas binding is not similarly increased by gammaglobulin from the sera of individuals who are not exophthalmic. The increased binding caused by the gammaglobulin from exophthalmic patients is the same whether the sera are positive or negative for the long-acting thyroid stimulator. Present binding experiments do not indicate a direct interaction between the gammaglobulin and the plasma membranes of the cells from Harderian glands. A mechanism for the pathogenesis of human exophthalmos is proposed on the basis of these data.
The binding of bovine TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone), LH (luteinizing hormone), and their subunits to the TSH receptor of beef thyroid membranes was compared to stimulation by these agents of adenylate cyclase [ATP pyrophosphate-lyase(cyelizing), EC 4.6.1.1] in the same membranes, glucose oxidation in dog thyroid slices, and the secretory process in mouse thyroids in vitro (colloid droplet formation) and in vivo (hormone release). The β-subunits of TSH and LH can bind to the TSH receptor and can activate thyroid function in vitro . In contrast, the α-subunit of TSH binds negligibly to the TSH receptor and has very low potency for stimulation of thyroid function (except for colloid droplet formation). Neither binding nor the biological activity of the β-subunits can be accounted for by TSH contamination, whereas this cannot be ruled out for α-TSH. LH binds to the TSH receptor even better than the β-subunit of TSH but the increased binding does not result in a corresponding activation of thyroid function. Neither α- nor β-TSH alone can induce more than 4-8% of the response to intact TSH in any of the investigated parameters. It is proposed that the β-subunit has within its structure the primary determinants which are necessary to stimulate biological activity, whereas the α-subunit imposes conformational changes on the β-subunit which in intact TSH promote binding and biological activity commensurately but in LH promote only binding.
Gangliosides inhibit 125I-labeled thyrotropin binding to the thyrotropin receptors on bovine thyroid plasma membranes, on guinea pig retro-orbital tissue plasma membranes, and on human adipocyte membranes. This inhibition by gangliosides is critically altered by the number and location of the sialic acid residues within the ganglioside structure, the efficacy of inhibition having the following order: GD1b greater than GT1 greater than GM1 greater than GM2 = GM3 greater than GD1a. The inhibition results from the interaction of thyrotropin and gangliosides, rather than the interaction of membrane and gangliosides. Fluorescence studies show that the inhibition is associated with a distinct conformational change of the thyrotropin molecule and that the progression from a "noninhibitory conformation" to an "inhibitory conformation" parallels exactly the order of effectiveness in inhibiting 125I-labeled thyrotropin binding. The ganglioside inhibition of 125I-labeled thyrotropin binding appears to be hormonally specific in that it is not affected by albumin, glucagon, insulin, prolactin, follicle-stimulating hormone, growth hormone, or corticotropin. The possibility that a ganglioside or ganglioside-like structure is a component of the thyrotropin receptor is suggested by the finding that gangliosides more complex than N-acetylneuraminylgalactosylglucosylceramide are present in bovine thyroid membranes in much higher quantities than have been previously found in extraneural tissue. The finding that the B component of cholera toxin, which also interacts with gangliosides, has a peptide sequence in common with the beta subunit of thyrotropin, suggests that thyrotropin and cholera toxin may be analogous in their mode of action on the membrane.
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