Hyperglycemia Produced by Extracts of Normal Urine

Abstract

Application of the tungstic acid precipitation 1 to the concentration of the active principles of urine led to the discovery that an extract of the urine of men produces a distinct hyperglycemia in fed rabbits. A review of the literature revealed only the papers of Bohm 2 and Eidelsberg, 3 who reported that the intravenous injection of gonadotropic extracts of pregnancy urine produced a marked hyperglycemia. Dingemanse and Kober 4 and Houssay 5 have added information on this point.

Of course, it is possible that the hyperglycemic action of extracts of urine is clue to the diabetogenic substance of the anterior lobe of the hypophysis, (Houssay, 6 Evans, 7 and others) but our work thus far does not permit us to draw such conclusions.

Preparation of Extracts. The substance has been concentrated by the usual methods 1 , 8 employed in this laboratory for the preparation of the gonadotropic factor of pregnancy urine. The benzoic acid adsorption process described by Katzman and Doisy 8 gave active extracts of this factor from normal male urine. In this case the acetone insoluble residue, after removal of the benzoic acid, was leached with dilute alkali (pH 8-9) instead of water. Table I presents the data obtained with this type of extract.

Tungstic acid precipitation (Katzman and Doisy¹) was also effective in concentrating the active factor. Clear and more potent extracts are obtained by liberating the active material from the tungstic acid precipitate by means of an alkaloid instead of the sodium hydroxide (Table II). In this procedure the acetone washed tungstic acid precipitate is stirred with an excess of an aqueous suspension of brucine and centrifuged. The brucine is removed by extracting the alkaline solution with chloroform or by precipitation with acetone. Other alkaloids can probably be used in place of the brucine.