Abstract
ALTHOUGH the thyroid gland is of extreme importance in the metamorphosis of amphibians, its function in cold blooded vertebrates in general is still obscure1. Several workers have suggested that thyroid hormones enable poikilotherms to withstand changes in environmental temperature. For example, Evropeitzeva2 reported that larvæ of Coregonus lavaretus ludoga withstood exposure to 29° C for 5 min after treatment with 0.033 per cent thiourea, whereas untreated animals died. Suhrmann3 found that immersion in a solution of thiourea increases the upper lethal temperature in the goldfish, Carassius auratus. Dent and Lynn4 also indicated that the thyroid may play a part in tolerance to changes in temperature. But the most striking report in this field comes from the work of Fortune5,6, who has reported that in the minnow, Phoxinus phoxinus L., the thermal death point is raised some 10° C by treatment with thiourea. She states: “Phoxinus already treated with thiourea for 3 days, were subjected to a rise in temperature of 10° C (that is, to 33° C) over 2 days. They survived indefinitely at this temperature and appeared normal, the controls dying under such conditions between 23° C and 24° C”. On the other hand, La Roche and Leblond7 state that the ability of salmon parr to withstand rising temperatures is impaired by radiological thyroidectomy and is restored by the administration of thyroid powder.
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References
Gorbman, A., in Comparative Endocrinology, edit. by Gorbman, A. (John Wiley, New York, 1959).
Evropeitzeva, N. V., Doklady Akad. Nauk. U.S.S.R., 68, 977 (1949).
Suhrmann, R., Biol. Zbl., 74, 432 (1955).
Dent, J. N., and Lynn, W. G., Biol. Bull., 115, 411 (1958).
Fortune, P. Y., J. Exp. Biol., 32, 504 (1955).
Fortune, P. Y., Nature, 178, 98 (1956).
La Roche, G., and Leblond, C. P., Proc. Soc. Exp. Biol., N.Y., 87, 273 (1954).
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DODD, J., DENT, J. Thyroid Gland and Temperature Tolerance Relationships in Cold-blooded Vertebrates. Nature 199, 299 (1963). https://doi.org/10.1038/199299a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/199299a0
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