Abstract
The role of the pituitary hormones in tadpole growth and differentiation is still incompletely understood. Well-characterized antisera to specific mammalian hormones create essentially single hormone deficits and allow analysis of the role of the missing hormone in specified processes. The effect of thyrotropin antiserum administered to prometamorphic Rana catesbeiana tadpoles during thyroxine (T 4)-induced or spontaneous metamorphosis has been studied. Compared to control animals treated with normal rabbit serum, thyrotropin antiserum depressed the rate of hind limb growth during T 4-induced metamorphosis to about 50% of the response to T 4 alone and completely blocked hind limb growth during spontaneous metamorphosis. These observations support the conclusions that (1) a thyrotropin-like hormone is secreted to continue the effect initiated by T 4 during induced metamorphosis and to initiate spontaneous metamorphosis; (2) the circulating tadpole hormones can cross-react with antisera prepared against bovine thyrotropin; and (3) the amphibian larval anterior pituitary hormones have immunologic properties common to the mammalian hormones.
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