THE PITUITARY BODY 



tracts may produce hyperglycemia only if the splanchnic 

 nerves and the adrenal glands are intact. Their observations 

 clearly indicate that anterior-lobe extracts, by an effect on 

 the central nervous system, may cause an increased libera- 

 tion of epinephrin which in turn causes a glycogenolysis (in 

 the liver) and a hyperglycemia. Besides adrenalectomy or 

 splanchnotomy, the following procedures — with which are 

 employed the technique and extracts of the authors cited 

 — prevent hyperglycemia otherwise occurring after the ad- 

 ministration of anterior-lobe extract: the injection of ergot- 

 amine (to paralyze sympathetic nerve endings); high spinal 

 anesthesia; and anesthesia by "Somnifen" (considered to nar- 

 cotize the brain stem). The extracts used were found to pro- 

 duce more marked effects in pancreatectomized dogs and to be 

 more potent if introduced intrathecally. Lucke has named 

 the substance causing these effects the "contra-insular 

 hormone." According to his description (1934), some of 

 which is not justified by his experimental data, its mechanism 

 of action is complex.'^ 



So far, in this section, the anterior-lobe extracts used ap- 

 pear to affect carbohydrate metabolism in a direction oppo- 

 site to that following insulin. However, several investiga- 

 tors'^ have concluded that suitable anterior-lobe extracts are 

 "pancreatropic" — i.e., they cause hyperemia and hyper- 

 trophy of the islet tissue of the pancreas, the formation of new 

 islet tissue, and changes in the concentration of blood sugar 

 or hepatic glycogen interpreted by the authors (Hoffmann 

 and Anselmino) as indicating a hyperinsulinemia. 



THE EFFECTS OF EXTRACTS OF THE PARS GLANDULARIS 

 ON THE METABOLISM OF FATS 



The effects of anterior-lobe extracts on the metabolism of 

 fats probably cannot be adequately interpreted until more 



'7 See also Fasold's observations in a case of Glykogenose. 



'* Anselmino, Herold, and Hoffmann (1933); Anselmino and Hoffmann (1933); 

 Hoffmann and Anselmino (1933); and Bierring (1934). Also see Aron (1933) and 

 p. 270. 



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