THE EFFECT OF THERMAL BURNS ON THE THYROID ACTIVITY OF THE RAT1

Abstract

DECREASED thyroid activity, measured as I¹³¹ uptake, has been reported following the administration of various stressing agents such as vaccines (Williams, 1949), epinephrine (Soffer, 1949, 1950), chemical agents (Paschkis, 1950), anoxia and abnormal nutritional states (Van Middlesworth, 1950), ACTH and cortisone (Money, 1950; Reiss, 1950) and early stages of infection with Lieshmania (Stauber and Mauer, 1952). Botkin and Jensen (1952) have shown an early decrease in I¹³¹ uptake by the thyroid following treatment with epinephrine and thyrotropin. Increased I¹³¹ uptake following the stress of X-irradiation has been observed by Botkin et al., (1952); whereas, the findings of Bogoroch (1951) indicated that during various types of acute stress I¹³¹ uptake by rat thyroid is consistently less than that of normal rats. Studies by Gribble and Peters (1951) suggest that burning may stimulate thyroid activity, but the investigations of Sellers (1950) and You (1950) indicate no changes in thyroid activity following burns, as reflected by BMR.