Effect of Certain Extracts on Basal Metabolism of Guinea Pigs

Abstract

Urine from patients with toxic goiter was obtained in 5 gallon lots from such patients, concentrated and extracted with petroleum ether as well as alcohol. An equal amount of urine from presumably normal people was obtained, concentrated and extracted in the same manner, to be used as control extracts. Equal amounts of the extract from the urine of patients with toxic goiter and the urine of normal people were fed to guinea pigs of the same weight, which had had a sufficient number of metabolic readings to determine a normal base line. The animals were starved 16 to 22 hours before the metabolic determination which was usually done every second day. The apparatus used was a closed chamber system, utilizing the Benedict principle of measuring oxygen consumption with a spirometer without regard to the output of carbon dioxide, which was taken up by passage of the gaseous mixture through soda lime. Various extracts of concentrated urine from normal adults and from patients with toxic goiter were made. The only ones which seemed potent from the standpoint of influence on basal metabolism were the extracts made with petroleum ether. However, the presence of so many toxic elements in our alcoholic extracts of urine does not allow us to form any conclusions regarding this particular extract. It was found that the animals to which the extract of urine from patients with toxic goiter was given sustained a slight increase in basal metabolism. The highest level was an average of plus 18% with observations over a period of 3 weeks. Each of another series of 3 animals was fed 8 mg. desiccated thyroid per kilo per day. One was fed over a period of 3 weeks with a petroleum ether extract of urine from supposedly normal adults, another fed in a similar manner with a petroleum ether extract of urine from a patient with toxic goiter, whereas the third animal was given nothing except the desiccated thyroid.