Jane A. Russell

THE EFFECTS OF INSULIN AND ANTERIOR PITUITARY EXTRACT ON THE BLOOD AMINO NITROGEN IN EVISCERATED RATS

IT IS well recognized that the intact animal maintains the concentration of blood amino acids at a fairly constant level and that in only very few circumstances do the values vary significantly from normal. Since the liver is the chief organ of deamination in the body, it seemed that observations on the blood amino acid levels in the liverless animal should afford a good opportunity for a study of the regulation by different agents of amino acid metabolism. The first successful hepatectomies were reported in dogs by Mann (1921); and Bollman, Mann and Magath (1926) showed that such an operation was followed within a few hours by a marked rise in the blood amino acid nitrogen level. This observation has been confirmed for the monkey by Maddock and Drury (1938), and for the rabbit by Svedberg, Maddock and Drury (1938). The effects of evisceration on blood amino acid levels were studied by Svedberg et al.