Abstract
Levothyroxine (T4) has a well-known effect on the central nervous system (CNS). This effect requires hours of latency by genetic pathway. We tested for short latency nongenomic effects of T4 superfusion on the spinal dorsal horn (DH) evaluating lumbar somatosensory evoked potentials in rats. T4 increased N and P wave amplitudes and N wave area under the curve, but reduced P wave duration and N–P interval, suggesting that T4 exerts both excitatory and synchronizing effects on DH interneurons in less than 300 s, thus, providing evidence of nongenomic effects of T4 on DH.
Acknowledgements
Thanks to M. Pinto and A. Arveláez for their technical help, to Dr V. Vivas-O’Connor for the critical reading of the manuscript, and to Dirección de Investigación y Producción Intelectual, FCS-Universidad de Carabobo, for animal supply.