Loss of thyroidal inducibility of Na,K-ATPase with neoplastic transformation in tissue culture

Thyroidal induction of the plasma membrane Na,K-ATPase is a characteristic of mammalian tissues that exhibit a thermogenic response to this hormone. To facilitate analysis of the pathways mediating this response, we defined the conditions needed for reproducible thyroidal induction of this enzyme, as well as mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase, in established cell lines in tissue cultures. In confluent monolayers of nontransformed mouse embryo fibroblasts (C3H/10T1/2), triiodothyronine modulated Na,K-ATPase and cytochrome c oxidase activities in a concentration- and time-dependent manner. Similar increases in Na,K-ATPase activity were obtained in other rodent embryo cells (SWISS/3T3 and NIH/3T3) and in human fibroblasts (WI-38). In contrast, neoplastic transformation of all of these cell lines resulted in loss of inducibility of Na,K-ATPase by thyroid hormone, regardless of the initiating mechanism (i.e. spontaneous, x-ray, chemicals, viruses).