Pituitary specific retinoid-X receptor ligand interactions with thyroid hormone receptor signaling revealed by high throughput reporter and endogenous gene responses

•Retinoids and RXR (but not RAR) agonists activate TR luciferase reporter cells.•RXR antagonists abrogate retinoid and RXR agonist induced luciferase activity.•RXR antagonists inhibit thyroid hormone induced luciferase activity.•Endogenous TR target genes are activated by the RXR agonists and natural retinoids.•Permissive RXR–TR heterodimers may be cell specific endocrine disruptor targets. Disruption of thyroid hormone (TH) signaling can compromise vital processes both during development and in the adult. We previously reported on high-throughput screening experiments for man-made TH disruptors using a stably integrated line of rat pituitary cells, GH3.TRE-Luc, in which a thyroid hormone receptor (TR) response element drives luciferase (Luc) expression. In these experiments, several retinoid/rexinoid compounds activated the reporter. Here we show that all-trans and 13-cis retinoic acid appear to function through the heterodimer partners of TRs, retinoid-X receptors (RXRs), as RXR antagonists abrogated retinoid-induced activation. The retinoids also induced known endogenous TR target genes, showing good correlation with Luc activity. Synthetic RXR-specific agonists significantly activated all tested TR target genes, but interestingly, retinoid/rexinoid activation was more consistent between genes than the extent of T3-induced activation. In contrast, the retinoids neither activated the Luc reporter construct in transient transfection assays in the human hepatocarcinoma cell line HuH7, nor two of the same T3-induced genes examined in pituitary cells. These data demonstrate the suitability and sensitivity of GH3.TRE-Luc cells for screening chemical compound libraries for TH disruption and suggest that the extent of disruption can vary on a cell type and gene-specific bases, including an underappreciated contribution by RXRs.