An Antidiuretic Effect Produced by Certain Preparations of Heparin. ∗

Abstract

In attempts to get evidence of the presence of an antidiuretic hormone in blood 1 it was found that commercial preparations of heparin produce antidiuresis when injected intravenously into diuretic rabbits in doses of 1 to 4 mg. Six preparations have been used in 62 injections. Three of 4 lots, obtained from the Connaught laboratories and derived from beef lung, contained 15 anticoagulant units per mg; the fourth, a highly purified solution (lot 43-1), obtained through the courtesy of Dr. C. H. Best, contained 1000 units per cc. Of 2 lots obtained from Hynson, Westcott and Dunning. both derived from dog liver, one contained 5 units per mg, the other 20 units per mg. All except lot 43-1 consistently produced brief definite antidiuresis (Fig. 1), characteristically preceded by a 10-minute latent period, when injected intravenously into rabbits. No effect was produced by subcutaneous injection into rats or frogs.

The antidiuretic action is not a property of the anticoagulant factor in the heparin, for the most potent Connaught specimen had little or no antidiuretic action and the effects of the 2 Hynson, Westcott and Dunning preparations were not proportional to their anticoagulant potencies.

It is entirely problematical whether this finding has any relation to the antidiuretic activity of liver extracts described by Theobald and White 2 or to a possible influence of the liver upon kidney function such as is intimated by the chronic polyuria which develops in Eck-fistula dogs. 3 , 4 There is no previous record of antidiuretic activity in lung extracts. The purpose of this note is to call the attention of those interested in antidiuretic hormones to the error which the use of heparin entails.