THE PITUITARY BODY 



(see reports such as those of Clark, 1928, and of Hogler and 

 Zell, 1935). However, it is the opinion of Cohen and Lib- 

 man (1937), who performed their experiments in healthy 

 men, that posterior-lobe extract lessens the utilization of 

 glucose by the tissues and thus antagonizes the action of 

 insulin. This belief arises from the following observations 

 and reasoning: in comparison with the results of injecting 

 only glucose, the injection of both glucose and posterior-lobe 

 extract is followed by a longer and more pronounced rise in 

 the level of the sugar of the blood; at the height of the effect 

 the arteriovenous difference in the concentration of sugar 

 in the blood is reduced; the arteriovenous difference in the 

 level of the blood sugar is an index of the activity of insulin, 

 which should be secreted at an increased rate in response to 

 the hyperglycemia. 



According to Ferrannini (1937), poisoning by phlorhizin 

 in the rabbit affects only slightly the diuresis-inhibiting ac- 

 tion of posterior-lobe extract. The latter in turn appears not 

 to influence the glycosuria.'^ 



Other effects of posterior-lobe extracts on metabolism. — Biihler 

 (1935) reported that oxytocic extract can cause creatinuria 

 in dogs or rabbits to disappear. In the toad, Xenopus laevisy 

 neither the injection of posterior-lobe extract nor the re- 

 moval of the pars neuralis seems to affect the creatine of 

 muscle (Shapiro and Zwarenstein, 1937). 



Blotner (1935) concluded that posterior-lobe extracts, 

 after administration intranasally, prevent the rise — or even 

 cause a fall — in the concentration of cholesterol in the plasma 

 of patients with obesity or diabetes insipidus to whom 500 cc. 

 of "20 per cent" cream had been given. 



Some recent observations on the metabolism of the principles 

 of the pars neuralis. — As is the case with anterior pituitary 

 gonadotropic extracts, certain salts of metals delay absorp- 

 tion and thus prolong the action of the hormone(s). Dodds 



'^ The effect of posterior-lobe extract on the glucose, CI, and protein of the 

 blood of normal and diabetic persons was investigated by Dell'Acqua (1935). 



f270l 



