A Substance in Urine of Normal Human Adults That Raises the Resistance of Suprarenalectomized Rats.

Abstract

Though potent extracts of the suprarenal cortex as made by F. A. Hartman and Swingle and Pfiffner will prolong the life of suprarenalectomized cats, enormous quantities of suprarenal glands are necessary for the recovery of small amounts of the active substance. A more efficient method should be found for obtaining the substance in larger amounts in order to make the use of cortical hormone available. It occurred to us that the cortical hormone may be eliminated in the urine in large amounts. A lipoid extract of the urine of normal young adults, males and females, was made. The urine of young male and female adults is extracted with benzene. The benzene is allowed to separate. The benzene fractions are evaporated at 40° in vacuo to dryness, the residue taken up in ether, the ether evaporated off in vacuo and the residue taken up in water or oil. The final aqueous product is colorless and turns faintly pink in 24 hours. There is no epinephrine present. It is non-irritating when injected subcutaneously or intraperitoneally and has no odor of urine. The procedure takes 36 to 48 hours. The final product was made up so that 1 cc. of the extractive was equivalent to 300 cc. of urine. The effect of repeated daily injections of the extract on the resistance of suprarenalectomized rats to histamine poisoning was determined in the same manner and under the same conditions as extracts of the suprarenal gland in our previous experiments, , with cortin prepared from the cortex of the whole gland according to the method of F. A. Hartman. Repeated injections of cortical hormone raise the resistance of suprarenalectomized rats to histamine poisoning administered on the 6th day after the operation.