Abstract
The experimental work reported dealt with the effects of extracts prepared in various ways from the pancreas of the dog, pig and ox upon the blood sugar, D:N ratio, respiratory quotient and clinical condition of depancreatized dogs.
A dog was given two days to recover from the operation and to become totally diabetic as shown by a D:N ratio of 2.8 or more. The dogs were fed ground beef in increasing amounts after the first day. The extracts were administered by stomach tube, intramuscularly, intravenously, subcutaneously and intraperitoneally.
Extract given by stomach tube caused no or very little fall in blood or urinary sugar. Injections of the extract into vein, tissue and peritoneum have been followed by abrupt lowering of the sugar in the blood and urine, the former at times even below normal and the latter has been made to completely disappear even when glucose had been previously administered. In the majority of cases the lowest level of blood sugar was reached in 4 hours from the time of injection whether the extract was given into vein, peritoneum, muscle or under the skin. Since harmful effects were experienced more frequently when the extracts were injected intravenously, intramuscularly and intraperitoneally than when given subcutaneously the last method was used most.
The first preparations used in this series of experiments were extracts of freshly removed, macerated dog's pancreas given without further treatment. These proved exceedingly toxic causing extensive sloughing and ulceration of the tissues into which they were injected, and sometimes even caused the death of the dog. These wounds were sterile unless secondarily infected. Simple alcoholic extracts likewise produced toxic effects, particularly when only small volumes of alcohol were used and the trypsin was for this reason not wholly destroyed.
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