The effect of administration of exogenous thyroxine on mitochondrial phosphatidylglycerol content and biosynthesis was investigated in rat heart ventricles. Rats were treated for 5 consecutive days with thyroxine (250 mg/kg body weight) and on the sixth day after an overnight fast the mass of ventricular mitochondrial phosphatidylglycerol and cardiolipin content were determined. Saline-treated animals served as controls. Thyroxine treatment did not affect body weight but increased heart weight 30% compared with controls. In addition, the ratio of heart weight/body weight (x 1000) was increased from 0.69 in controls to 0.89 in thyroxine-treated rats consistent with this model. Thyroxine-treatment resulted in a 34% increase (P < 0.05) in phosphatidylglycerol and a 23% increase (P < 0.05) in cardiolipin content in ventricular mitochondrial fractions compared with controls. The mechanism for the increase in ventricular mitochondrial phosphatidylglycerol was investigated. Phosphatidic acid:cytidine-5'-triphosphate-1,2-diacylglycerol cytidylyltransferase and phosphatidylglycerolphosphate phosphatase activities were unaltered in the ventricular mitochondria of thyroxine-treated rats. In contrast, phosphatidylglycerolphosphate synthase activity was increased 3.5-fold (P < 0.05) in these mitochondrial fractions compared with controls. As a control for the effectiveness of thyroxine on mitochondria, cardiolipin synthase activity was determined. A 2.8-fold increase (P < 0.05) in cardiolipin synthase activity was observed in ventricular mitochondrial fractions of thyroxine-treated rats compared with controls. We postulate that thyroxine-treatment of rats produces an increase in the pool size of ventricular mitochondrial phosphatidylglycerol and that the mechanism is an increase in phosphatidylglycerolphosphate synthase activity.
