THE PITUITARY BODY 



Also, they appear to have drawn conclusions from too few 

 data. They beheved that the increase in Hver-fat is produced 

 by the vasopressor principle and that the oxytocic principle 

 actually opposes this effect of the vasopressor principle. 

 White (1933) showed that the vasopressor principle causes a 

 much greater increase in the concentration of ether-soluble 

 material in the rabbit's liver than is caused by the oxytocic 

 principle. 



Best and his co-workers have demonstrated that the 

 marked increase in the liver-fat of rats receiving a fat- or 

 cholesterol-rich diet can be prevented by feeding choline 

 chloride. However, the feeding of choline chloride was found 

 not to prevent the acute increase in the concentration of fatty 

 acids in the liver of rabbits receiving large doses of the vaso- 

 pressor principle (Mukerji and van Dyke, 1935). 



All the other experiments on the effects of posterior-lobe 

 extract's on the metabolism of fats are concerned with the 

 behavior of the fat and lipins of blood after the administra- 

 tion of extracts. -The injection of posterior-lobe extract prob- 

 ably does not affect significantly the concentration of either 

 cholesterol or phosphatide in the blood of the normal mam- 

 mal.^' 



Raab (1926, 1928, 1930, 1933-34) has published numerous 

 reports on the effect of posterior-lobe extract on the neutral 

 fat of the blood of the dog and man. He postulates the 

 presence in the pituitary body of a hormone, "lipoitrin," 

 which has not been identified otherwise. The subcutaneous 

 injection of this hormone (usually Raab employed posterior- 

 lobe extracts) is thought to cause a reduction in the concen- 

 tration of the neutral fat of the blood by affecting a fat- 

 metabolism center in the tuber cinereum whence nervous 

 impulses, passing to the liver by way of the cervical cord and 



" Blix and Ohiin (1927); Moehlig and Ainslee (1927); Reiss and Langendorf 

 (1929); George (1930); Nitzescu and Benetato (1930); Raab (1930); Long, Hill, 

 and BischofF (1932); and Recht and Flesch (1934). 



[364] 



