Abstract
We have previously reported 1 that there is an increase in concentration of glutathione in muscles of mature rats after 15 daily injections of a potent growth hormone obtained by alkaline extraction of beef pituitary. In control animals similarly treated with a heat inactivated solution of the hormone we found no such change. Analyses of the livers showed no significant change. However, if animals were sacrificed a few hours after a single injection of the potent hormone we found a decided fall in the glutathione concentration of the liver with only a slight change, if any, in the muscle glutathione. We have no explanation to offer for this sudden change in the liver but believe that it may furnish a method for estimation of the potency of the growth hormone that is more rapid than the usual method by measuring growth after 20 days of injection. It may prove to have a more important significance since by its use the fundamental biochemical reactions induced by the growth hormone may be studied quantitatively and thus it may be possible to obtain additional information concerning the chemical reactions involved in the synthesis of tissues.
Mature female rats which had reached growth stasis normally were used. They were divided into 2 groups matched for weight. One group, the experimental, received a single injection of a growth hormone solution prepared according to the method of Evans. 2 In a previous trial daily injections of 1 cc. of this solution had induced an average growth of 50 gm. in 15 days in mature female rats. The control group received the same amount of the heat inactivated hormone. Both groups were injected then allowed to fast for periods varying from 8 hours to 24 hours, when they were killed.
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