Thyroid wars: the rise of central actions

In the field of thyroid hormone (TH) action on energy balance, huge advances have been achieved in the past decade, from human, animal, and in vitro studies. A key achievement was the demonstration of the TH 'central' metabolic action, which was recently discovered in rodent models and challenged the previous 'peripheral' paradigm. In this opinion, we dissect and try to unify the two paradigms, from analyzing the respective bench models to extrapolating the possible translational bedside implications.

Automated summary

Huge advances have been achieved in the field of thyroid hormone (TH) action on energy balance in the past decade, particularly with the recent discovery of TH's 'central' metabolic action in rodent models. By analyzing bench models, the two paradigms have been dissected and unified to explore their possible translational implications.