CHROMATOSOME-DISPERSING HORMONE 



the vasopressor principle is responsible for any antidiuretic 

 effects of chromatosome-dispersing hormone." 



The metabolism of chromatosome-dispersing hormone. — 

 Chromatosome-dispersing hormone can be detected in the 

 urine of normal men and women. It appears with increased 

 frequency in the urine of pregnant women; this fact, how- 

 ever, does not make tests for its presence of much value in 

 diagnosing pregnancy (see p. 127, n. 5). 



Lewis, Lee, and Astwood (1937) have extended the obser- 

 vations of others on the distribution of chromatosome-dis- 

 persing hormone in the pituitary body and adjacent struc- 

 tures of cattle. The unit used by them was the minimum 

 amount of material causing an erythrosome dispersion in all 

 fish {Phoxinus laevis) receiving that dose.'^ The error of 

 assay apparently was high. Their estimate of the concentra- 

 tion of the hormone in various parts of the gland was as fol- 

 lows (all figures refer to units per gram fresh tissue) : pus- 

 like material in cleft consisting chiefly of desquamated cells 

 of the pars intermedia, 270,000; pars intermedia, 255,000; 

 colloid in cleft, 123,000; pars neuralis, 33,000; pars glandu- 

 laris, 20,000-31,000; inferior part of stalk, 3,500; superior 

 part of stalk, 300; tuber cinereum, 30; region about third 

 ventricle, 12; cerebrospinal fluid, o. The authors concluded 

 that typical basophils could not be responsible for the secre- 

 tion of the hormone by the pars intermedia, inasmuch as 

 these were absent from that division of the gland. Their re- 

 sults are in agreement with the best data which had been 

 gathered previously: in the pituitary of the ox, the chroma- 

 tosome-dispersing hormone is secreted by the pars inter- 

 media. Posterior-lobe extract contains the hormone because 



" Jones and Steggerda (1935) could detect no change in the rate of loss of weight 

 of frogs in water in relation to color adaptation to light, dark, or neutral back- 

 grounds. In fact, hypophysectomized frogs lost weight at a similar rate. 



" Bottger (1937) assayed chromatosome-dispersing hormone by using the isolated 

 fin of male specimens of Phoxinus laevis. He observed microscopically the number 

 of erythrophores affected as well as the degree of dispersion of the erythrosomes. 

 Maximum effects occurred in 30-45 minutes. The error of determination was be- 

 lieved to be ±20 per cent. 



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