CONSTITUENTS OF THE THYMUS GLAND AND THEIR RELATION TO GROWTH, FERTILITY, MUSCLE, AND CANCER

Abstract

Two substances are extracted from the thymus gland, designated respectively "promine", because it promotes malignant growth, and "retine", because it retards such growth. Promine, although causing cancer growth, seemed unable to induce malignancy; it also caused sterility in both male and female rats. Retine, administered to myotonic goats, greatly aggravated symptoms, while the opposite was apparently true for promine. It seemed that promine was a specific product of the gland, but that retine was a more widely distributed tissue constituent.