EFFECT OF ADREN^ALIXE OX PLASMA AND TISSUE CONSTITUENTS 611 



subcutaneously to every second mouse 20 min. before tlie adminisliaiion of ^^P 

 After the lapse of a further 15 min the mice were decapitated. The adrenaline pre- 

 paration (exadrin) used in our experiments was a generous gift of Astra. 



In tlie experiment in which the rate of disappearance of the intravenously 

 injected 32p Y\-as followed, rabbits weighing 2— 3 kgm and previously injected with 

 urethane (1.5 gm per kgm body weight) were injected into the vena jugularis with 

 0.1 ml of saline containing 0.1 mgm of ^iP and ^-P of 25 /^ C activity. Plasma samples 

 of about 0.5 ml were secured at intervals from the carotid. The technique used 

 was thus the same as applied by Hahn and one of us (1941), by Flexneb and 

 his colleagues (1942), and numerous other experiment ors. Another group of sister 

 rabbits was injected subcvitaneously 24 min. before the start of the experiment 

 with 40 microgram of adrenaline. 



In our investigations on the effect of adrenaline on ^^Fe extrusion, wo injected 

 labelled FeClg containing about 3 microgram of iron and 1 microcuiie of activity 

 into the ear vein of a rabbit and, l^/^ hour later, when its plasma contained the 

 ^'Fe almost exclusively as |5-globulin, 6 ml of the plasma of this rabbit were trans- 

 fused to a sister rabbit. Pharmacological doses of adrenaline were administered 

 by subcutaneous, physiological doses (1 y per minute per kgm body weight) by 

 intravenous infusion all through the experiment and for the last 10 min before 

 its beginning. 



About 0.5 ml of plasma was secured from the carotid at intervals also in these 

 experiments. After wet ashing of the plasma sample 500 micrograms of iron were 

 added, the iron precipitated as FeS, as described by Agner, Bonnichsen and 

 one of us (1954), filtered through a perforated aluminium dish, and its activity 

 measured. 



In five experiments with mice 0.2 y of labelled FeClg was injected intraperi- 

 toneally to each of 20—50 mice, half of which were injected with 1 to 10 y of adre- 

 naline. The mice were killed 50 min after being injected and the ^^Fe content 

 of the plasma and organs was determined. 



RESULTS 



a) Effect of adrenaline on the distribution of intraperiioneally injected 

 ^^P in the mouse 



The result of the preliminary experiment carried out with 220 mice 

 is an absence of a significant difference between the ^^P content of the 

 dry liver samples and dry muscle samples of the same weight of adrenaline 

 injected mice and of controls, the ratio being 0.99 and 0.95. Administra- 

 tion of adrenaline, however, led to a 20 7o depressed uptake of P^^ 

 l)y the dry femur. The plasma of the adrenaline injected mice contained 

 at the end of the experiment, which took 15 min, 29 7o ^^^ ^^^7 °f 

 that of the controls. 



In the final experiments, administration of adrenaline as seen in 

 Table 1 did not significantly influence the uptake by the liver (ratio 

 0.97) and only slightly that by the muscles (ratio 0.94), but it strongly 

 depressed, by 40 ^j^, the uptake by the femur and also the ^^p content 

 of the plasma, the mean value of w^hich was reduced by 32''/o, as seen 

 in Table 1. 



39=" 



