Abstract
Work on blood sugars in normal and hypophysectomized monkeys has been recently reported (Smith, et al.1). Blood lactic acid was simultaneously determined in many of these samples.
The material here reported was obtained from 15 normal, 11 completely hypophysectomized and 4 partially hypophysectomized monkeys. The blood sugar values for these individuals are also included for comparison. The blood lactic acid was determined by a modification of the method of Friedman, Cotonio and Shaffer (Scott 2 ). Blood was drawn from the heart into a mixture of 50% NaF and Na-oxalate. All of the animals were starved from 16 to 18 hours.
The high values for lactic acid in the monkey may be due to the muscular activity exerted by the animal before capture and to the muscular tension developed while the animal is being held during the drawing of the blood. The animals were chained so that there was a minimum of effort during their capture. However, the monkey in captivity is still a wild animal and opposes restraint.
Hypophysectomy is followed in the monkey by a fall in the blood sugar (Smith, et al. 1 ). The blood lactic acid falls markedly also.
It is to be noted that this lower value of the blood lactic acid is still 5 times that for venous blood in man under basal conditions. There is, however a fairly good separation of the values in the normal and operated animals when arranged in a scatter chart (Chart 1). Those animals which were later found to have been incompletely hypo-physectomized showed intermediate values for the lactic acid in like manner to that found to be true for the blood sugar (Smith, et al.)
Animal No. 261 was placed separately in the table. A small fragment of tissue one mm. in diameter was present after the operation. The blood sugar was about the same as for the incompletely hypo-physectomized animals but the lactic acid was higher than the average of the normal monkeys.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.