• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.369-375
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• 1999

Hyperthroidism in known to alter the activity of a number of enzymes involved in the catabolism of histidine to CO2. 10-Formyltetrahydrofolate dehydrogenase(EC 1.5, 1.6, 10-formyl-THE dehydrogenase) catalyzes the NADP-dependent conversion of 10-formyltetrahydrofolate to tetrahydrofolate and CO2. In previous studies, 10-formyl-THF dehydrogenase purified from rat and pig liver was coidentified with the cytosolic folate-binding protein. In this study, we investigated the effects of feeding thyroid powder (TP) and thiouracil(TU) on the folate-binding properties of 10-formyl-THE dehydrogenase, the uptake of an injected dose of [3H] folate, and the metabolism of labeled folate to pteroylopoly-${\gamma}$-glutamate in rat liver. The initial hepatic uptake(24hr) of the labeled folate dose was higher in TU-rats and slightly higher in TP-rats in controls. With longer time periods, decreased hepatic uptake of labeled folate was observed in TP-animals compared to euthroid animals, and high levels of hepatic uptake of labeled folate were maintained in TU-animals. This data shows that high levels of thyroid hormone decreased the retention of folate in rat liver. Folate polygutamate chain length was shorter in TU-rats than controls, which suggests that thyroid states do not affect the ability to synthesize pteroylpolyglutamates and that folate polyglutamate might be modulated by altered folate pool size. The ability of 10-formyl-THE dehydrogenase to bind folate in rat liver was similar in both TP-and TU-rats although dehydrogenase activity was changed by thyroid sates.