A case of posttraumatic hypopituitarism was studied. A 46-years-old man suffered from adrenal crisis after he showed symptoms of hypopituitarism which was caused by the head injury of 26 years ago. Hyponatremia was prominent at the time of admission. Clinical and laboratory studies revealed hypothyroidism, hypofunction of adrenal gland and hypogonadism. Blood pituitary hormones-ACTH, GH, TSH and LH were determined by radioimmunoassay. Plasma ACTH levels were not detectable (below 10pg/ml) even after metyrapone administration. Base-line serum GH level was low and did not respond to the administration of insulin or L-arginine. Although the response was subnormal, serum TSH levels were increased in response to synthetic thyrotropin releasing hormone (TRH). Serum LH levels were low. Mechanism about the hyponatremia at the time of adrenal crisis in this case was discussed.

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The rat pituitary and serum prolactin were determined by double antibody radioimmunoassay in female rats. Rat FSH, LH and growth hormone did not interfere with this rat prolactin radioimmunoassay. However, hypophysectomized rat serum inhibited the reaction between labeled rat prolactin and anti-rat prolactin serum. During the estrous cycle, pituitary prolactin content showed the highest value in metestrus and serum concentration in estrus. Pituitary prolactin and serum prolactin were abruptly decreased after ovariectomy. Pituitary prolactin content returned almost to the normal value 4 weeks after ovariectomy, whereas serum prolactin showed persistently the low value after ovariectomy. In lactating post-partum, pituitary prolactin content was markedly high 6-8 days after parturition. However, the value at 3 weeks postpartum was not different from that of normal cycling rats. The high serum prolactin level was found for five days from the 3rd day after parturition. The gradual increase in pituitary content and serum concentration started from vaginal opening and reached to the maximum at the age of 9 weeks. In old rats the pituitary content showed the highest value but the serum level was lowest after 5 weeks of age. Clomiphene citrate (Clomid) was given s. c. to mature female rats at a dose of 10 or 100μg per rat daily for 7 consecutive days, and cyclofenil (Sexovid) at a dose of 50 or 500μg. Both doses of Clomid and 500μg of Sexovid elevated serum prolactin levels in the terminal stage of and immediately after the treatments. Five micrograms of 3-methoxy-17-epioestriol (Epimestrol) or 1, 6-bis-dehydro-retroprogesterone (Ro 4-8347) was administered in the same manner as Clomid. Ro 4-8347 produced a rise in pituitary prolactin content on days 6 and 8 of the treatment, and a prominent serum prolactin peak was observed immediately after that. No significant changes in pituitary and serum prolactin were induced by Epimestrol.

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Functional significance of the remarkable loss of the rat pituitary acidophils following thyroidectomy was investigated upon histological observation along with the measurement of pituitary trophic hormones. Following thyroidectomy, the pituitary GH content was lowered, and the acidophils decreased in number and pnally was not perceptible after the 15th postoperative day. But pituitary ACTH was kept within the normal range. Administration of dexamethasone (DM), 0.2mg/100g/day, for 15 or 30 days to the normal rats raised not only the number of acidophils but also the pituitary ACTH content. DM did not, however, induce any change in pituitary GH content. When the thyroidectomized rats were given the same dose of DM for 15 days from the 15th postoperative day, the population of acidophils and pituitary GH content in those rats showed a moderate restoration and ACTH content increased signipcantly.
These results indicate that the loss of the acidophils following thyroidectomy may merely depend upon the depletion of their α-granules, and may not mean the genuine disappearance. The loss of acidophils is, therefore, likely to be a simulative phenomenon. The present evidence upon the histometrical estimation and measurements of hormones is favourable to the reconprmation of our previous view that the large granules in the acidophils are responsible for GH and the small ones for ACTH storage. The mechanism of the loss of GH granules following thyroidectomy was discussed in this paper.

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Effect of L-dopa on the release of human growth hormone (HGH) and thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) was investigated with 7 normal subjects and 30 patients of endocrine disorders. The single oral dose of L-dopa 1gm and the iv administration of L-dopa 100mg showed the elevation of HGH in plasma, however no release of TSH in plasma. The possibility of increasing HGH by L-dopa administration to normal subiects was more highly observed in the iv infusion of L-dopa 100mg than in the oral dose of L-dopa 1gm. The timing of HGH response was quite variable in the oral dose of L-dopa, however was predictable (between 30 and 60min) after the iv administration of L-dopa. There were some observations where the subjects, who normally responded to arginine or insulin administration, did not respond to the oral administration of L-dopa but did respond to the iv administration of L-dopa 100mg. HGH could be increased significantly in normal subjects by L-dopa iv administration under the high glucose level in blood. The patients of hyperthyroidism, hypothyroidism and primodial dwarfism responded to Ldopa in HGH release like normal subjects. These observations suggested that L-dopa administration iv might be used as a diagnostic test of HGH release, however additional clinical experience will be needed to assess its possible usefullness.

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Granules containing melanophore stimulating hormone were separated from bullfrog pars intermedia by differential centrifugation and sucrose gradient centrifugation. These granules were present in the supernatant after centrifugation at 650g for 15min and were sedimented by centrifugation at 11, 000g for 15min. Sucrose gradient centrifugation of this fraction revealed that MSH activity was present in granules having a density equivalent to 1.6-1.7M sucrose solution and a diameter 1, 500-3, 000Å. From their size and structure, it is concluded that MSH granules are the small electron-dense granules and not the large colloidal granules observed in electron micrographs of the pars intermedia.

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Chronic administration of ouabain to the intact rat in a daily dose of 3mg/kg b.w. for the consecutive 15 days caused a signicant increase of adrenal weight and a remarkable elevation of serum corticosterone associated with a signicant decrease of adrenal corticosterone. The same result was obtained with the hypophysectomized rat received the 5 consecutive ouabain-administrations combined with the 4 consecutive administrations of 0.1 unit of ACTH and with hypophysectomized rat received the consecutive 14 ouabain-administrations prior to hypophysectomy. Subcellular distribution of adrenal corticosterone was influenced to a minor extent by chronic administration of ouabain. Fate of corticosterone in chronically ouabain-treated rat was investigated by giving ³H-corticosterone intraperitoneally immediately after the last administration followed by pursuing ³H-corticosterone both in serum and in liver 30, 60 and 90min after the injection. Both 60 and 90min after the injection of 3H-corticosterone, the radioactivity of ³H in serum of ouabain-treated rat was higher than that of the control rat, while the specic radioactivity (³H/μg corticosterone) was lower in the drug-treated rat than in the control rat. Radioactivity in corticosterone fraction of liver did not show any difference between the drug-treated rat and the control rat.
From data obtained, it is reasonable to consider that chronic administration of ouabain to the rat gives influence not only on pituitary gland to stimulate the secretion of adrenocorticotropic hormone but also on adrenal gland to stimulate the secretion of adrenal corticosterone. Metabolism of corticosterone by liver will not be so much affected by chronic treatment of ouabain as the disturbance in the metabolism of this steroid will cause a signicant elevation of serum corticosterone.

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It is well known that there is a marked daily rhythm in the responsiveness of pituitary-adrenal axis to the stress in man. This phenomenon suggests the fact that the higher levels of corticoids in plasma may have had an inhibitory effect on the ACTH release induced by the administered stress. Thus we tried to examine in what degree the CRF activity in the median eminence in response to the stimulus was influenced by corticoids from the adrenal gland and ACTH from the pituitary. In our experiment, a circadian rhythm in the increase of CRF activity after the stress from the non-stress level was observed in normal rats and still persisted in adrenalectomized and hypophysectomized rats. Furthermore, the level of CRF activity attained after the stress at the time when CRF activity in the circadian rhythm was highest was similar to that at the time when it was lowest, in normal, adrenalectomized and hypophysectomized rats. Thus it is likely that the response of ACTH release to stimulus is not influenced by the diurnal rhythm of plasma corticoids or ACTH, but is related to other factors such as inherent neural sensitivity to stress.

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Radioimmunoassay of parathyroid hormone (PTH) in human serum was carried out using guinea pig antibody against bovine parathyroid hormone and ¹²⁵I labeled highly purified bovine PTH employing dextran-coated charcoal to separate the bound and free fraction. With the use of this method, PTH was detected in the serum of about 85% of 118 normal male and female subjects of various ages. PTH in serum was definitely elevated in primary and secondary hyperparathyroidism and pseudohypoparathyroidism but was undetectable or low in idiopathic and postoperative hypoparathyroidism. In 11 patients with postmenopausal osteoporosis with compression fracture, serum PTH was significantly higher than in age-matched controls. Serum PTH increased along with the progress in the severity of vertebral bone change in X-ray picture.

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After recent discoveries of bovine, porcine, rat and human proinsulin, extensive efforts have been made for their physiological and biological significance. Only a few informations are available concerning them at present, because of shorter quantity of the hormones.
An isolation method of porcine proinsulin from crystalline porcine insulin with easy performance has been described.
Repeated gel chromatographic separations of porcine insulin on Bio-Gel column yielded crude porcine proinsulin and its intermediate form. A single band component with corresponding electrophoretic mobility of porcine proinsulin was obtained by linear gradient chromatography of this crude material on DEAE-cellulose column, and was converted to insulin by trypsin digestion. All of DEAE-cellulose chromatographic fractions having more basic components than insulin could be converted to insulin by the trypsin treatment. Amino acids analysis of this single band component appeared to be the same amino acids composition of known porcine proinsulin.

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The activity of testosterone 5α-reductase in purified nuclei of rat ventral prostate was inhibited by addition of estradiol-17β, estrone or estriol in vitro. Rate of the inhibition of the enzyme activity by these estrogens was of similar degree. Therefore, this inhibitory effect does not seem to be correlated to their estrogenic potency.
Effect of three anti-androgens (Ro 2-7239, SK & F 7690 and TSAA 291) on the activity of testosterone 5α-reductase was also examined and it was revealed that SK & F 7690 and TSAA 291 showed the inhibitory effect on the enzyme activity.

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A method for formation of heptafluorobutyl derivatives of catecholamines and its use to gas-liquid chromatographic (GLC) analysis by electron capture detector (ECD) have been studied.
When 0.01ml of heptafluorobutyric anhydride is used for the reaction to catecholamines in 0.1ml of ethyl acetate at 60°C for 30min, formations of heptafluorobutyl derivatives occur for all hydroxyl and amino groups of them. Heptafluorobutyl derivatives of catcholamines have good GLC properties and are more sensitive to ECD than other derivatives of them, i.e. trifluoroacetyl or trimethylsilyl ether-heptafluorobutyl derivatives. Separations of epinephrine, dopamine and norepinephrine are almost satisfactory, when 2% XF-1105 are used as stationary phase at 170°C.
It has been recognized that heptafluorobutyl derivatives are applied to GLC analysis of catecholamines in biological fluids.

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