A Biological Reaction for Hyperthyroidism.

Abstract

A few years ago, Dresel 1 described a new biological reaction for hyperthyroidism based on the observation that the serum of toxic goitre patients when injected into mice rendered their livers glycogen poor. It is upon this reaction that we wish to present this preliminary report. Our observations are in accord with those of Dresel, though we have modified the technique of the test somewhat.

Dresel injects the mice, feeds them oats and water for 48 hours, then starves them for one hour before examining the livers for the presence of glycogen. We have observed, however, that even after several hours of starvation with this method, all the mice may still possess glycogen rich livers, or else the results may vary according to the amount of food which the animals have consumed prior to this starvation period. We, therefore, inject the serum, feed carbohydrates and water for 30 hours, starve the mice 16 hours, inject 1.5 cc. of 10% glucose solution and examine the livers 3 hours later. By this method the amount of food ingested by the mice becomes an unimportant factor, since after this starvation period all the mice have glycogen free livers and each is then supplied with a known quantity of glycogen-forming material. The liver, quickly removed from the animal which has been killed by breaking the neck, is ground with sea sand and 5 cc. of hot water, mixed well with 3 cc. of 20% trichloracetic acid, centrifuged and filtered. To 20 drops of the filtrate, one drop of Lugol's solution is added. The presence of glycogen is indicated by a mahogany brown color, while a yellow colored solution indicates little or no glycogen.

We have tested the serum of 20 toxic goitre cases, 10 conditions other than thyroid disease, and 2 cases of “thyroid constitution”, having experimented with some hundred and seventy-five mice.