THE PITUITARY BODY 



in the rat but permits the retention of the extract's follicle- 

 stimulating effect (McShan and Meyer; Chen and van Dyke). 

 Rowlands (1935) found that extracts of the beef anterior 

 pituitary, tested by their ovulation-producing effect in rab- 

 bits, were not affected by "Merthiolate" (0.02 per cent) but 

 deteriorated rapidly at room temperature (50 per cent loss 

 in 9 days, 75 per cent loss in 23 days). Stored at — 2° C, such 

 extracts lost less than 50 per cent of their activity after a 

 year. Maxwell and Bischoff (1935), who doubt that there are 

 two gonadotropic hormones, found that their pituitary ex- 

 tract was inactivated by o.i N NaOH (3 hours at 37° C.) but 

 was only partially destroyed by treatment with 0.033 N 

 NaOH or o.i N HCl under the same conditions. Mild oxidiz- 

 ing or reducing agents did not affect the hormone(s), whereas 

 it was partially or completely inactivated by reagents re- 

 acting with amino, imino, or hydroxyl groups. Formalin 

 treatment (4-10 per cent at pH 7-8) did not prevent luteiniz- 

 ing effects. ^^ 



The extraction procedure of Bates, Riddle, and Lahr (1935) 

 utilized as an initial solvent 60 per cent aqueous alcohol at a 

 pH of 9-9.5. Guyenot, Ponse, and Dottrens (1935) described 

 methods — differential filtration, hydrolysis by acid, autolysis, 

 peptic digestion — of separating follicle-stimulating ("auxo- 

 genic") hormone from luteinizing ("crinogenic") hormone. 

 Evans and others, in two reports published in 1936, described 

 methods for isolating from pituitary tissue specific extracts 

 comprising (i) a substance stimulating the interstitial cells 

 of the ovary or testis, (2) a luteinizing substance, (3) a folli- 

 cle-stimulating substance which also stimulates the testicular 

 germinal epithelium, and (4) a substance inhibiting or antag- 

 onizing the action of the follicle-stimulating substance (or of 

 prolan or of the gonadotropic hormone of pregnant-mare 

 serum). Revised methods, including necessary precautions, 

 of extracting gondaotropic hormones from urine have recent- 



^■5 Hayward and Loeb (1937) studied the effects of pituitary tissue implanted 

 after immersion for hours to days in strong solutions of sucrose, glycerine, or urea. 



[106I 



