Free radicals have been implicated in many pathological processes, including ischemia, inflammation, and malignancy. Since a reduction in extrathyroidal outer ring monodeiodination of T4 and rT3 occurs in virtually all systemic illnesses, we have studied the effect of free radicals on iodothyronine (T4 and rT3) 5'-monodeiodinating activity (MA) of liver tissue in vitro. Rat liver microsomes or homogenate were preincubated in Tris buffer for 30 min with a free radical-generating system (FRGS) and then incubated with T4 (2.5 microM) or [125I]rT3 (0.4 nM) and dithiothreitol (DTT; 5-20 mM with T4 and 20-150 mM with [125I]rT3) in the same buffer for 10 or 30 min. T3 generated during incubation was quantified by RIA of ethanol extracts of the incubation mixture. 125I generated from [125I]rT3 was quantified after precipitation of the incubation mixture with trichloroacetic acid or by paper chromatography. Free radicals caused 55% or more reduction in hepatic T4 MA and 44% or more reduction in rT3 MA in various experiments. The inhibition of hepatic rT3 MA after incubation with FRGS persisted despite removal of FRGS and washing of microsomes preincubated with FRGS before studying the MA. However, inclusion of DTT (1-60 mM) during preincubation of tissue with FRGS prevented the FRGS-induced inhibition of rT3 MA. Depletion of the iodothyronine substrate did not occur when FRGS inhibited T4 and rT3 5'-monodeiodination. Free radical scavengers, i.e. superoxide dismutase (600 IU/ml), catalase (300 U/ml), tocopherol (10 mg/ml), thiourea (0.15 M), and tert-butanol (0.15 M), all significantly reduced the inhibition of hepatic rT3 MA caused by FRGS. The FRGS-induced inhibition of hepatic T4 MA was reduced by the same doses of tocopherol, thiourea, and tert-butanol, but not by superoxide dismutase or catalase. Since free radicals may effect tissue damage by lipid peroxidation and since the latter results in generation of malondialdehyde (MDA) as a by-product of the reaction, we studied MDA by its reaction with 2-thiobarbituric acid. Incubation with FRGS caused an approximately 100-fold increase in MDA formation in liver microsomes. Serum MDA was significantly higher in 16 NTI patients than in 8 normal subjects and also higher in turpentine oil-injected rats [an experimental model of nonthyroidal illness (NTI)] than in saline-injected control rats. The data suggest that generation of free radicals may contribute to the reduced extrathyroidal 5'-monodeiodination of T4 and rT3 in NTI.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)