Thyroglobulin (Tg) is the major protein of the thyroid, providing a matrix for synthesis of the thyroid hormones and a vehicle for their subsequent storage. It thus has a central role in thyroid hormone formation and metabolism. The long range objectives of this proposal are to define how Tg participates in the synthesis and intrathyroidal metabolism of hormones, and how variations in Tg structure and processing are involved in thyroid diseases, including familial goiter, nodular goiter, thyroid cancer, endemic goiter, and autoimmune thyroid disease.
The specific aims are to: 1. Describe hormonogenic sits of Tg - This is done with radioiodine-labelled Tg from experimental animals by isolation, reduction, alkylation, and trypsin digestion of Tg followed by purification and sequencing of hormone containing peptides by HPLC and locating them by correlation with published sequences from cDNA clones of the Tg gene. In addition to describing the major sites, direct attention will be given to the sites whose utilization increased by TSH, and to the location of disulfides. Iodination in vitro of low iodine human Tg, followed by tryptic peptide processing as described above, will be used to identify early sites of iodotyrosyl formation and to study iodination cleavage of the Tg polypeptide chain. 2. Study Tg proteolysis - This project will continue the chemical characterization of the newly described thiol Tg hydrolase and will assess its role, and those of cathepsins D and B isolated lysosomes in the proteolysis of Tg to release thyroid hormones. Methods include: purification by column chromatography, enzyme characterization by affinity labelling, amino acid analysis and N-terminal sequencing; measurement of (125I) Tg digestion and identification of proteolytic products by gel electrophoreses and HPLC, comparing TSH-treated animals with controls. 3. Relate human Tg to thyroid disease - Tg will be isolated form diseased human thyroids obtained at surgery or autopsy, and tryptic peptides mapped on HPLC to identify variations in protein structure, with particular attention to hormonogenic sites.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
2R01DK011043-18
Application #
3224735
Study Section
Endocrinology Study Section (END)
Project Start
1978-04-01
Project End
1992-03-31
Budget Start
1987-04-01
Budget End
1988-03-31
Support Year
18
Fiscal Year
1987
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Virginia
Department
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
001910777
City
Charlottesville
State
VA
Country
United States
Zip Code
22904
Dunn, J T; Dunn, A D (1999) The importance of thyroglobulin structure for thyroid hormone biosynthesis. Biochimie 81:505-9
Colzani, R M; Alex, S; Dunn, A D et al. (1999) The oral administration of human thyroglobulin does not affect the incidence of lymphocytic thyroiditis in the biobreeding Worcester rat. Thyroid 9:831-5
Dunn, A D; Corsi, C M; Myers, H E et al. (1998) Tyrosine 130 is an important outer ring donor for thyroxine formation in thyroglobulin. J Biol Chem 273:25223-9
Dunn, A D; Myers, H E; Dunn, J T (1996) The combined action of two thyroidal proteases releases T4 from the dominant hormone-forming site of thyroglobulin. Endocrinology 137:3279-85
Mason, M E; Struyk, B P; Dunn, J T (1996) mRNA encoding human thyroglobulin's C-terminus is heterogeneous. Thyroid 6:633-7
Mason, M E; Dunn, A D; Wortsman, J et al. (1995) Thyroids from siblings with Pendred's syndrome contain thyroglobulin messenger ribonucleic acid variants. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 80:497-503
Dunn, A D; Crutchfield, H E; Dunn, J T (1991) Proteolytic processing of thyroglobulin by extracts of thyroid lysosomes. Endocrinology 128:3073-80
Dunn, A D; Crutchfield, H E; Dunn, J T (1991) Thyroglobulin processing by thyroidal proteases. Major sites of cleavage by cathepsins B, D, and L. J Biol Chem 266:20198-204
Lamas, L; Anderson, P C; Fox, J W et al. (1989) Consensus sequences for early iodination and hormonogenesis in human thyroglobulin. J Biol Chem 264:13541-5
Roe, M T; Anderson, P C; Dunn, A D et al. (1989) The hormonogenic sites of turtle thyroglobulin and their homology with those of mammals. Endocrinology 124:1327-32

Showing the most recent 10 out of 12 publications