The presence of insulin in chicken tissues.

Abstract

Koppanyi, Ivy, Tatum and Jung 1 recently found that when the pancreas of the chicken is removed, a Von Mering-Minkowski diabetes mellitus is present for seven or eight days only. After this period the blood sugar returns to normal and sugar disappears from the urine.

Since it was not known whether or not the pancreas and other tissues of the chicken contained insulin, it was decided to assay some of the tissues of the normal chicken for insulin content. Such knowledge would be necessary before one could arrive at any interpretation of the insulin content of the tissues of depan-creatised chickens. Also, this question is involved in any explanation that might be offered for the above strange and interesting observation.

Through the co-operation of Dr. Jones and Mr. Templeton of the Research Division of Swift and Company, we were able to remove the pancreas, liver and kidneys from one hundred chickens within one hour after death.

Insulin was prepared from these tissues by Fisher's 2 modification of the Doisy-Shaffer 3 method.

Three hundred and thirty grams of pancreas, 240 grams of kidney, and 712 grams of liver were extracted, the liver containing a high percentage of lipins was more difficult to work with. After filtering off the toxic portion, the insulin was precipitated, dried, weighed and made up to the following volumes: 1.8 gram of precipitate from the pancreas was made up to a volume of 42 cc. 1.5 gram of precipitate from the kidney and 1.8 gram of precipitate from the liver were dissolved in 52 cc. of distilled water respectively. The solutions were preserved with cresole.