AJP - Gastrointestinal and Liver Physiology, Vol 256, Issue 3 604-G612, Copyright © 1989 by American Physiological Society

ARTICLES

Differential effects of thyroxine and cortisone on jejunal sucrase expression in suckling rats

K. Y. Yeh, M. Yeh and P. R. Holt
Division of Gastroenterology, St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center, New York, New York 10025.

Effects of thyroxine (T4) and cortisone (C) on developmental expression of jejunal immunoreactive sucrase-isomaltase (S-I) and sucrase activity in suckling rats were studied to determine whether these hormones have distinctive actions. Immunoreactive S-I and sucrase activity were absent in infant rats and appeared simultaneously on days 16-18, when cells expressing S-I protein were detected at the villus base. By day 22, the entire jejunal mucosal surface was covered by new cells expressing immunoreactive S-I. Jejunal S-I content surged to adult levels on day 22, whereas the sucrase activity of immunoreactive S-I protein increased continuously until day 32. Administration of 12.5 nmol of T4 or 1.25 mumol of C on day 12 induced precocious expression of jejunal sucrase activity on day 15. T4 also induced sucrase activity in adrenalectomized rats without increasing serum corticosterone concentrations. Both T4 and C appeared to exert their effects in crypt cells, since immunoreactive S-I protein appeared only in villus base cells 24 h after administration. Pulse labeling of [14C]leucine showed that both hormones evoked de novo synthesis of S-I. The S-I induced by C had significantly higher sucrase activity than that induced by T4. We conclude that postnatal development of sucrase activity results from de novo synthesis of S-I with progressively higher catalytic activity until day 32 and these developmental processes are sequentially modulated by thyroid and adrenocortical hormones.

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