Comparison of Assays of Epinephrine in the Suprarenal Extract from Oxen, Pigs, Cats, Dogs and Rabbits by Means of the Cat Paradoxical Eye Reaction, the Rabbit Intestine Segment Method and the Colorimetric Method of Folin, Cannon and Denis

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From the suprarenal glands of oxen, pigs and rabbits, which were simply killed without narcotizing or any other manipulations the cortical and medullary tissues were taken separately, precautions being taken to insure the purity of each tissue as far as possible. Extracts were prepared from them and from the whole suprarenal glands of dogs and cats which were employed for other experiments, by means of the Folin's procedure, the normal saline solution and water. The epinephrine content therein was determined in parallel by the colorimetric method of Folin, Cannon and Denis, the rabbit intestine segment method and the cat paradoxical eye reaction, adrenalin chloride of Sankyo Co. being taken as the standard. (1) Of the medullary extracts of oxen and pigs the rabbit intestine method yielded invariably an evidently higher value than the other two methods, which gave values not much different from each other in the majority of cases. The ratios of the values by the three methods were for the oxen medullary tissue on an average Folin: Intestine 1:1.8, Eye: Folin 1:0.9 and Eye: Intestine 1:1.7 and in cases of pigs' medullary tissue 1:1 to 1:1.49, 1:1 to 1:0.8 and 1:1.2 to 1:1.55 respectively. Methods of extraction were shown to have no visible relation to the ratios of the values obtained by the three methods. The Folin test gave a distinctly higher value in cases of the cortical tissue in comparison with the other two, which gave in the present investigation in which the separation took place after a lapse of some time, one hour or more, after the removal of glands, positive results but very weak ones, regardless of the procedure of extraction. (2) In the cases of the whole gland of dogs and cats the rabbit intestine segment method gave somewhat higher value than the other. With extract of the rabbits' suprarenals a smaller value was obtained by the rabbit intestine segment than by the Folin test, even in the medullary extract. The cortical extract gave a considerably higher value to the Folin than to the intestine. (3) When the separation of the cortical tissue from the medullary was made after a lapse of some hours the epinephrine determinable by the rabbit intestine (also simultaneously by the Folin) was found definitely increased. The epinephrine diffuses therefore from the medulla to the cortex after extirpation of the gland. Manipulation of the capsule as kneading accelerates this diffusion. The amount of substance or substances in the cortex, detectable by Folin only but not by the intestine, was on the contrary found unaltered by such handling. (4) Methylaminoacetocatechol hydrochloride or adrenalon-HCl reacts to the Folin test with an intensity of about 1/2.3 of adrenalin hydrochloride, but to the rabbit intestine with that of one two hundredth of the latter. ω-aminoaceto-catechol hydrochloride is capable of producing a similar or a little inferior degree of colour in Folin test to adrenalon-HCl, but possesses no in hibitory power upon the rabbit intestine movements.