PART I. POLAROGRAPHICAL, ELECTROPHORETICAL AND BIOCHEMICAL STUDIES ON THE HIGH-MOLECULAR CONSTITUENTS OF GASTRIC JUICE WITH REFERENCE TO CANCER OF THE STOMACH

Abstract

1) Cancerous gastric juices were more labile polarographically than those of the anacidic and control samples.
2) Comparing the Pfw of each specimen of gastric juice aspirated at intervals of 20 minutes after insulin-injection, a transient lowering of Pfw of a specimen taken at the first 20 minutes was notable in gastric cancer.
3) From the chemical determination, the content of nitrogen, tyrosine, DPA-reactive substance, hexosamine and hexuronic acid was found to be in the descending order: Cancerous, anacidic, and acidic (control) samples.
4) As the result of statistical inquiry of the analytical data, positive correlations were found to exist between the DPA-reactive substance and the hexosamine content. No correlation was noticed between the combined content of tyrosinenitrogen and that of DPA-hexosamine, so that the substances increased in cancerous gastric juice may be devided into two different groups, i.e. the nitrogentyrosine group and the DPA-hexosamine group.
5) From the result of acidic control, a physiologically active substance in Pfw (typical double wave) was noticed in Fr. VIII, which consisted electrophoretically of a single peak B₁, and into which the grandular Mp has been fractionated by Glass and Boyd.
6) Contrary to the above finding, the polarographically active substances in the cancerous specimens were observed in Fr. VI and VII, which consisted electrophoretically phoretically of the ill-difined peaks, B₂, B₃ and B₄. The increases in the content of DPA-reactive substance and of hexosamine seemed to be related to these peaks appeared in Fr. VI and Fr. VII.
7) The anacidic specimen was placed between the acidic control and the cancerous specimen in view of the lability of Pfw and the characteristics of chemical composition, but it resembled, in the nature, more closely to the cancerous specimen rather than the control specimen.
These facts described above may indicate that there is the functional precancerous stage of gastric secretion, on which further investigation will be made.