Abstract
The mechanism by which parathyroid extracts increase the level of the blood calcium is almost completely unknown. Sendroy and Hastings 1 have shown that in vitro such extracts have no effect on the solubility of slightly soluble calcium salts. Similarly, we found that parathyroid extract did not increase the calcium content of serum incubated with fresh bone preparations. Bodansky, Blair and Jaffe 2 have shown that in the living animal the increase of the blood calcium on prolonged treatment is brought about by dissolution of the bone salts.
Since the effect of the extracts does not seem to be on the bone directly, the idea suggests itself that some other organ or tissue may be also involved in the action of the parathyroid hormone. Because the liver carries on so many of the chemical functions of the body, it was decided to first make some attempts to test whether the liver might be involved in the action of parathyroid extracts. The choice of the liver was made more attractive by the findings of Minot and Cutler 3 that calcium reserve is a protection against acute carbon tetrachloride and chloroform poisoning.
We determined the response of dogs with experimentally induced liver injury, to parathormone injection. 20 To date only phosphorus has been employed to produce liver damage, and in these animals it has been found that the normal response to parathormone disappears.
A typical protocol of the results obtained with phosphorus poisoning is the following:
These results necessarily must be taken with caution but they do seem to point to a connection between the liver and parathyroid action. The effect of other liver poisons is now being studied.
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