The influence of ageing on the ability of the brain cortex β-adrenoceptors to be regulated by very short stimulation with thyroid hormones has been investigated. Experiments were performed in 3-, 10-, 17- and 22-month-old mice using both thyroxine (T4) and triiodothyronine (T3) as stimulators and analyzing β-adrenergic receptor characteristics 15 and 60 min after hormone injection. Results showed that a statistically significant up-regulation is present in both young and old mice when treated with T3. On the contrary, after T4 injection only 3-month-old animals respond to such a short-term treatment, whereas older adult and old animals showed not statistically significant changes. Thus, the impairment in the T4-induced up-regulation starts already in adult mice and does not seem to further increase progressively with advancing age. From these findings it is suggested that the lack of responsiveness of β-adrenoceptors to T4 but not to T3 stimulation in adult and old mice may be due to relatively early impairment in the transformation of T4 into T3