The acute effect of superior cervical ganglionectomy (SCGx) on the pituitary-thyroid axis was examined in rats subjected to surgery 3-24 h earlier. SCGx caused an abrupt decline in thyroid norepinephrine content (an index of degeneration of sympathetic nerve terminals) to 5-10% of controls between 8 and 16 h. Rats subjected to SCGx 14 h earlier exhibited a significant depression of thyroid 131I uptake, total and free serum T4 levels and serum TSH levels.
Efferent Neuroendocrine Pathways of Sympathetic Superior Cervical Ganglia
Early Depression of the Pituitary-Thyroid Axis after Ganglionectomy
D.P. Cardinali, M.A. Pisarev, M. Barontini, G.J. Juvenal, R.J. Boado, M.I. Vacas
Neuroendocrinology 1982;35:248-254