The administration of thyroxine to young male rats produced an increase in the specific activity of their cardiac monoamine oxidase (MAO). A reduction in the circulating concentrations of thyroid hormones, brought about by 2‐thiouracil, led to a decrease. The relative change in activity produced was greater with tyramine than with benzylamine as substrate. By following the time‐course of the return of enzyme activity, with tyramine as substrate, after a single injection of pargyline in vivo, it was concluded that both excess and lack of thyroid hormones cause their effects on MAO activity by changing the rate of synthesis of the enzyme and not its degradation rate constant. The degradation rate constant did change with the age of the animal. The MAO activity, which increased towards tyramine as substrate in hyperthyroid rat hearts, behaved in the same way as that of controls to heat treatment, irreversible inhibition by pargyline or by clorgyline and also in Km determinations. The pattern for benzylamine oxidation was similar, except for the effect of the inhibitor clorgyline which shifted the plateau region of the double sigmoid inhibition curve significantly using enzyme from hyperthyroid rat hearts. The plateau region was also shown to be affected by the age of the animal. The possibility is discussed that the increased cardiac MAO activity produced by thyroid hormones and by the growth of the animal is mediated by that form of the enzyme primarily responsible for the oxidation of tyramine. Mixed substrate experiments suggested that tyramine oxidation could be inhibited competitively by benzylamine.
