Abstract
Following the observation of Castle and his coworkers 1 , 2 that normal human gastric juice activates beef to produce an antianemic substace, it seemed worthwhile to test bovine gastric juice for this property. The present report deals with a study that is similar to those of Castle but different in that bovine gastric juice was used instead of the stomach contents from human beings.
We obtained fresh gastric juice from the fourth stomach pouch of adult cattle. This material was filtered until a water-clear product was obtained and then incubated with beef at 37°C. for 2 hours. The incubated product was strained and portions administered by stomach tube to 4 patients having classical pernicious anemia.
The diagram shows a characteristic remission of pernicious anemia (case 1). The reticulocytes, red blood cells, and the hemoglobin all behaved in the manner described by Minot. 3
These experiments demostrate conclusively that the unpurified gastric juice taken from the fourth stomach pouch in cattle contains a potent anti-anemic factor. This work closely parallels the work of Castle and, in addition, makes it possible for us to continue studies without resorting to human sources for gastic juice.
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