Abstract
THE large number of pituitary (anterior as well as posterior lobe) hormones postulated has for some time caused uneasiness to workers in that field. The reasons for this seem to be mainly the following: (1) It appears inconceivable that an organ of the size of the pituitary gland which has in the anterior lobe three and in the case of the neural lobe only one type of cell which may be secretory should elaborate so many individual substances. In answer to this it can be said that neither size nor cytological differentiation of an organ or organism has so far been shown to limit the complexity of its chemical pattern. The number of substances present in or derived from liver cells or unicellular organisms serve as example. (2) It has been suggested that some or all of the supposedly existing hormones may be cleavage products of larger molecular compounds, that is, artefacts produced by the chemical and physical procedures used for their isolation. This concept seems originally to have been formed by J. J. Abel1, who maintained that the secretion of the posterior pituitary lobe consisted of large molecules carrying all known post-pituitary activities. Riddle2 and Collip3 applied this concept to the secretion of the anterior pituitary lobe. Cameron4 has recently endorsed their view. The experimental basis of Abel's theory has since been partly invalidated as it has been possible to separate the oxytocic and pressor-antidiuretic activities of posterior pituitary extracts by mild procedures (fractional adsorption, electrophoresis) which make an injury to an originally present large molecule unlikely.
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HELLER, H. Multiplicity of Pituitary Hormones. Nature 147, 178 (1941). https://doi.org/10.1038/147178a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/147178a0
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