The thyroid hormone-plasma protein complex in man. II. A new in vitro method for study of "uptake" of labelled hormonal components by human erythrocytes

The present consensus characterizes thyrotoxi-cosis,4 a disease of unknown etiology, by the quan-titative overproduction and release by the thyroid of excessive amounts of normal thyroid hormone (1-4). According to this concept, the distinctive abnormal signs, symptoms, and laboratory findings of hypermetabolism in patients with diffuse toxic goiter are attributed to the effects of increased amounts of the normal hormone upon peripheral tissue metabolism. Plummer (5), among others, proposed an alternate theory, based chiefly upon clinical observations, which ascribed various mani-festations of the disease to the effects of 1) an ex-cess of normal hormone, and 2) a qualitatively abnormal hormone, which he suggested was ab-normal because of incomplete iodination. In con-trast, he suggested that the abnormality in patients with toxic nodular goiter was due solely to an ex-cess of normal thyroid hormone. Salter and John-ston (6) concluded, on the basis of acetone precipi-tation of acidified sera, that the plasma thyroid hormone in hyperthyroidism differed from thy-roxin added in vitro to normal and hypothyroid sera to levels of protein-bound iodine comparable 'This investigation was supported by research grant