MOLECULAR AND MORPHO-FUNCTIONAL EFFECTS OF PROTEIN RESTRICTION ON THYROID FUNCTION: PARTICIPATION OF MTOR SIGNALING PATHWAY

Nutritional deficiency in early life is related to physiological and metabolic disorders throughout life, contributing to the development of chronic diseases in adulthood. In this context, thyroid hormones (TH) exert pleiotropic actions, regulating energy metabolism and cell differentiation of various tissues. mTOR is a serine-threonine protein kinase that regulates cellular metabolism, growth, and proliferation by integrating nutrient availability and growth factor signaling. TSC2 is an intracellular inhibitor of mTOR complex 1 (mTORC1), and deletion of this gene results in mTORC1 activation. Recent data pointed to mTORC1 as an important protein for thyroid function, although not much is known about the modulation of this pathway by amino acids specific to the thyroid.