DIFFERENTIATING SOME FUNCTIONS OF THE ANTERIOR PITUITARY HORMONES

Abstract

Considers present possibilities of identifying specific responses with specific pituitary hormones. Tabulated data for ring doves indicate that neither gonad-stimulating hormone, prolactin, nor prolan alone increases liver size; probably all preparations rich in both growth- and gonad-stimulating principles do markedly enlarge the liver. These data indicate that liver enlargement following the administration of extracts of the anterior pituitary, like a similarly induced glyco-suria, is probably a non-specific, secondary and pathological response[long dash]reflecting a functional dysharmony incident to the simultaneous presence in the blood of large amounts of two or more potent principles which never normally thus coexist in the blood. Only those pituitary preparations which enlarge the immature bird testis in- duced thyroid enlargement in doves and pigeons, but not quite all active gonad-stimulating preparations caused increase of weight in thyroids. The data examined indicate that hyperplasia of the normally developed thyroid following pituitary administration is a specific response to the gonad-stimulating hormone, or to another anterior pituitary derivative having similar solubilities.