Besides their well-known regulation of transcription by binding to nuclear receptors, thyroid hormones have been suggested to have direct effects on mitochondria. In a previous study, incubation of rat heart mitochondria with 125I-labelled N-bromoacetyl-3,3′,5-tri-iodo-L-thyronine (BrAcT3), a thyroid hormone derivative with an alkylating side chain, resulted in the selective labelling of a protein doublet around M(r) 45,000 on SDS/polyacrylamide gels [Rasmussen, Köhrle, Rokos and Hesch (1989) FEBS Lett. 255, 385-390]. Now, this protein doublet has been identified as mitochondrial creatine kinase (Mi-CK). Immunoblotting experiments with the cytoplasmic and mitochondrial fractions of rat heart, brain and liver, as well as inactivation studies with the purified chicken CK isoenzymes have further demonstrated that all four CK isoenzymes (Mia-, Mib-, M- and B-CK) are indeed selectively labelled by BrAcT3. However, in contrast with their bromoalkyl derivatives, thyroid hormones themselves did not compete for CK labelling, suggesting that not the thyroid hormone moiety but rather the bromoacetyl-driven alkylation of the highly reactive ‘essential’ thiol group of CK accounts for this selective labelling. Therefore the assumption that CK isoenzymes are thyroid-hormone-binding proteins has to be dismissed. Instead, bromoacetyl-based reagents may allow a very specific covalent modification and inactivation of CK isoenzymes in vitro and in vivo.
Thyroid hormone increases beta‐catenin levels through PI3K in rat heart in vivo and in vitro