ENDOCRINE FUNCTION OF THE SPLEEN AND ITS PARTICIPATION IN THE PITUITARYADRENAL RESPONSE TO STRESS

Abstract

THE POSSIBILITY of the spleen functioning as an endocrine organ has been suspected for a long time. Extensive reviews of the problem by Lauda (1933) and Perla & Marmorston (1935) showed however that, in spite of a great deal of circumstantial evidence, there was no valid proof of an internal secretion of the spleen. The last ten years do not seem to have brought forward any decisive fact and it may be assumed that the results reported in this paper constitute the first experimental evidence that the spleen produces and can release into circulation a substance acting like a hormone. It is also shown that this function of the spleen is under the control of the pituitary and the adrenal cortex. The significance of the internal secretion of the spleen is not yet quite clear but all the data lead to the conclusion that it is produced in case of emergency and its main action is on protein metabolism.