Abstract
Not a few investigators2)-10) were and are engaged in establishing the chemical nature of “toxohormone”, with conflicting conclusions, some saying it to be a peptide, some to be a nucleic acid, some to be a nucleoprotein, and some to be a low-molecular base. We once proposed11) that “toxohormone” is a compound closely resembling uric acid. However, in a Batteli-Stern method, which was applied to assay the liver catalasedepressing activity in that study, the reaction flask was shaken by the hand, giving not necessarily objective results, so that we retract transitorily the opinion until it is confirmed by a reinvestigation. Recently we changed the technique of assay that the flask may be shaken by the aid of a motor at a definite frequency. The experiments since then disclosed unexpected facts, which may be summarized as follows:-1) There exist a number of toxohormones, strong and weak. 2) Their sources are not restricted to cancerous materials, although the toxohormones from non-cancerous materials are generally weaker in activity and less in yield than those from corresponding cancerous materials. 3) Most of toxohormones contain a hexosamine-containing carbohydrate moiety whether large or small.
The substances, which have been found to act as toxohormones, will be informed of in a series of papers. The present account deals with a globulin-like protein from cancerous ascitic fluids with original seat in stomach. It possesses toxohormone- and KIK-activity simultaneously. Since the liver catalase-depressing activity was distributed among different fractions in several trials of isolating “toxohormone”, the presence of more than one toxohormone even in a cancerous ascitic fluid seems highly probable.
