Uptake of 3,5,3′-l-tri-iodothyronine in human erythrocytes

Abstract

ABSTRACT The mechanisms of 3,5,3′-l-tri-iodothyronine (T3) uptake into human erythrocytes were examined. Purified membranes of human erythrocytes were shown to have two classes of T3-binding sites with one being a high-affinity site (dissociation constant, 59·2±17·8 nmol/l; maximum binding capacity, 344·3 ± 95·5 fmol/μg protein). Furthermore, it was shown that there were two pathways for T3 uptake in human erythrocytes; one was saturable, stereospecific (T3»thyroxine > 3,5,3′-d-tri-iodothyronine), energydependent and dominant at 15 °C; the other was not displaced by unlabelled T3 and was energyindependent but did not occur by passive diffusion. The former pathway which, it is suggested, is a receptor-mediated transport pathway, was inhibited by monodansylcadaverine, phloretin or oligomycin at 15 or 37 °C, but the latter pathway was not inhibited by these inhibitors. Our results strongly suggest that uptake of T3 by the energy-independent pathway became predominant over the energy-dependent pathway at 37 °C and accounted for 83% of total T3 uptake of human erythrocytes. Journal of Endocrinology (1989) 121, 585–591