METABOLISM AND THE PARS GLANDULARIS 



2. Pancreatectomy. — Kraus (1920-21, 1923) investigated 

 the gross and microscopic appearance of the pituitary in 

 human beings and cats with diabetes. He concluded that the 

 typical changes (diabetes in youth or experimental diabetes) 

 were a reduction in the weight of the pituitary and, in the 

 pars glandularis, a reduction in the number and size of the 

 oxyphils, hydropic degeneration of the basophils, and the 

 proliferation of a "fetal" type of cell. Others do not agree 

 with these findings (Verron, 1921; Schwab, 1923). Binet, 

 Verne, and Messimy (1934) found that the pars glandularis 

 of the pancreatectomized dog was largely made up of oxy- 

 phils and that the pars intermedia and pars neuralis con- 

 tained an increased amount of colloid." 



In the dog and monkey the injection of oestrin or oestrone 

 ("Theelin") has been found to reduce or prevent the gly- 

 cosuria following pancreatectomy. The injections also pro- 

 longed life or improved the condition of the animals. These 

 effects were attributed to an interference with the secretory 

 activity of the pars glandularis (Barnes, Regan, and Nelson, 

 1933; Nelson and Overholser, 1934). 



3. Hypophysectomy and pancreatectotny . — Houssay and 

 Biasotti (1930) studied the course of diabetes in the toad 

 {Bufo arenarum) and the dog after both pancreatectomy and 

 hypophysectomy. Their important conclusion, which has 

 since been confirmed both in their laboratory and elsewhere," 

 was that the diabetes of pancreatectomy was either amelio- 

 rated or prevented by hypophysectomy performed before or 

 after the removal of the pancreas. Confirmatory observa- 



" The effects of insulin on the pituitary are a matter of dispute. Eaves (1926), 

 Igura (1927), and Maeda (1932) all believed that insulin caused pituitary hyper- 

 trophy accompanied by an increase in the number of oxyphils (rat and rabbit); 

 Collin and others (1932) described effects on the formation of colloid (rabbit). 

 Muthmann (1932) denied that the repeated injection of insulin into the rabbit 

 altered the structure of the pituitary. 



'^ Houssay and Biasotti (1930-31, i933);Orias (1932); Barnes and Regan, Regan 

 and Barnes (1933); Biasotti (1934); Lucke, Heydemann, and Berger (1934); and 

 Long and Lukens (1935). 



[289I 



