Abstract
In the light of Collip's report at the meetings of the Federation of Societies for Experimental Biology at Washington, D. C., December 1924, it has been deemed advisable to report our experimental work on the extracts of the parathyroid gland.
The parathyroid glands of the ox were used for all preparations of the extracts. Several methods of preparation were tried with varying degrees of success. Our first preparations were found to contain certain toxic substances which produced sterile abscesses at the sites of subcutaneous injection, similar to those produced by impure insulin extracts. This toxic material was later removed, thereby increasing the potency of the extract. The methods of preparation and purification will be reported later.
Our results are in close agreement with those reported by Collip. 1 At present we have three dogs which have had the thyroid and parathyroid glands removed for periods of 3 to 6 weeks. These dogs showed severe tetany in less than 48 hours, following the removal of the thyro-parathyroid apparatus. The tetany was relieved in 2-4 hours after the injections of the extract, relief depending on the size of the dose and the severity of the attack.
Each of the animals received 1-2 pounds of hamburger steak and ground beef hearts, per day. As soon as an attack of tetany was relieved by an injection of the extract, the animal manifested a great desire for food. It was noted that, after the control of the tetany by the extract, the subsequent attacks were less frequent in spite of the fact that the animals were kept on a meat diet.
The chemical and physical changes produced in the blood of the normal and parathyroidectomized dogs by the injection of the extracts, as reported by Collip, have been confirmed.
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