Utilizing techniques of Sephadex G-200 column chromatography, sucrose density gradient ultracentrifugation and dextran-coated charcoal adsorption, the characterization of progesterone-binding proteins was attempted in cytosols obtained from the medial basal hypothalamus including the median eminence, the remaining hypothalamus and the cerebral cortex of ovariectomized estrogen-primed rats. After incubation of the medial basal hypothalamic cytosol with ³H-progesterone in the absence or in the presence of various unlabeled steroids, a specific progesteronebinding protein was found in the 7 S region with its binding capacity of -2×10^-14moles per, mg protein and dissociation constant of -6×10^-9 M. No specific binding was, however, found in the remaining hypothalamus and the cerebral cortex.

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Rabbits immunized with lysine-vasopressin bovine serum albumin conjugate showed the diabetes insipidus syndrome intermittently manifested by polyuria and polydipsia with various degrees of peaking from the eighth to fourteenth day post injection during boosters.
The antibody-antidiuretic hormone immune complexes which may interfere with the action of the endogenous vasopressin on the kidney were found in the diabetes insipidus rabbits. However, the degree of the polyuria was not necessarily related to the quantities of the formed immune complexes, the titer, nor the affinity of the antiserum. It is suggested that the degree of the polyuria is related not only to the binding ability of the antiserum to the endogeneous vasopressin, but also to other factors.

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The immunological activity of eel calcitonin was more persistent than that of porcine and human calcitonin when incubated in vitro with rabbit serum, human serum, liver homogenate or kidney homogenate, respectively. Both eel and human calcitonin were more stable than porcine calcitonin when injected iv into rabbits.

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With the purpose of investigating the pathogenesis of obesity and hyperinsulinemia in rats with hypothalamic lesions (HTL), HTL were made in vagotomized rats, and the development of obesity was serially followed up to 15 weeks as well as the changes of plasma triglyceride and immunoreactive insulin(IRI) levels.
Even in vagotomized rats, obesity developed after HTL and plasma triglyceride and IRI levels increased significantly. However, obesity was slightly less in grade and occurred later as compared with sham-vagotomy-HTL rats. Plasma IRI levels in vagotomized rats significantly correlated with the body weight, Lee's index, the weight of adipose tissue and plasma triglyceride level. Similar results were also obtained in rats with HTL which were pair-fed following vagotomy.
These results suggest that the hyperinsulinemia in obese rats with HTL may be involved not only by hypersecretion of insulin mediated by hypothalamo-vagal nerve system but also by some insulin-antagonistic factors such as increases of adipose tissues and plasma lipids.

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Pituitary adenomas obtained from 6 patients with acromegaly and 8 patients with chromophobe adenoma were subjected to the tissue culture to correlate in vitro secretion of growth hormone (GH) and prolactin (PRL) to preoperative in vivo endocrine studies and endocrinilogical manifestations. Tissue culture demonstrated that all of the acromegalic tumors secreted large amounts of GH for 2-4 weeks and some of the PRL-secreting chromophobe adenoma without any clinical and endocrinological evidences of GH secretion secreted considerable amounts of GH; however, no recognizable GH secretion was noted in the remaining chromophobe adenomas. PRL was secreted in vitro in large amounts by tumors obtained from patients with hyperprolactinemia with and without acromegaly. It is interesting to note that tumors obtained from 2 patients who showed very slight elevation of plasma PRL of less than 40ng/ml secreted large amounts of PRL in vitro. This finding suggests that PRL-secreting adenoma could not be ruled out in patients with mild hyperprolactinemia. The duration of in vitro PRL release was longer than that of GH and its rate of decrease was slower than that of GH.

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A high yield of viable single cells was attained from isolated pancreatic islets of adult rat by the sequential treatment with EDTA and Dispase. The percentage of single cells was consistently higher with EDTA-Dispase in comparison with EDTAtrypsin treatment, being 65.8±7.9% and 36.0±5.4% respectively, when more than 90% of total islet cells were viable. Excellent preservation of free islet cells dissociated with EDTA-Dispase was demonstrated morphologically by light and electron microscopy.
The secretory response of dissociated B cells to glucose was stabilized earlier with EDTA-Dispase than with EDTA-trypsin treatment. The amount of insulin released into the medium was proportional to the number of cells inoculated, thus permitting the quantitative analysis of B-cell function in vitro.

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The effect of injection of 0.3μg of thyrotropin releasing hormone (TRH) into the third ventricle on heart rate and photically evoked potentials in the midbrain reticular formation in urethane-anesthetized rats was studied. TRH increased the heart rate and amplitude of the visual evoked potentials within a few minutes following injection. The intraventricular injections of LHRH, constituent amino acids of TRH and intraperitoneal TSH did not exert any effect. This indicates that TRH is effective in the central nerveous system in inducing tachycardia in the rat.

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Three thyroid stimulators; LATS, TSH, and cholera toxin, have been tested by bioassay using congenitally athymic homozygous mice (nu/nu), nude mice and control littermates (nu/+) possessing normal thymic function. nu/+ Animals showed a response to LATS similarly to normal white mice of the ddN strain. The assay response to LATS in nu/nu animals was about half that in normal mice. TSH also showed a less stimulating action in nude mice.
Cholera toxin made a long acting response similarly to LATS. The response to cholera toxin in nude mice was about half that of normal control mice.
The thyroid of nude mice has a receptor for LATS-immunoglobulin, TSH or cholera toxin, which is similar to that of normal mice.

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Stability of [Asu^{1, 7}]-eel calcitonin was compared with that of eel calcitonin by the radioimmunoassay method.[Asu^{1, 7}]-Eel calcitonin cross-reacted with anti-eel calcitonin antisera.[Asu^{1, 7}]-Eel calcitonin was as stable as eel calcitonin in rabbit liver or rabbit kidney extracts when incubated at 37°C. Disappearance curves from the plasma of [Asu^{1, 7}]-eel calcitonin and eel calcitonin following iv injection in rabbits were quite similar.

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Male mice of the C3H/Tw stain were given 15 daily injections with estradiol-17β(E), 30μg/day, or testosterone propionate (TP), 50μg/day for the first 10 days and 100μg/day for the following 5 days, from the day of birth, which were followed by 30 daily injections with TP, TP plus PMS or PMS plus HCG. Daily doses of hormones were increased with advancing age, 50μg (for the first 5 days), 100μg (for the middle 15 days) and 200μg (for the last 10 days) for TP, and 10 IU (for the first 5 days), 15 IU (for the next 15 days) and 30 IU (for the last 10days) for gonadotropins. The control mice received oil and saline after neonatal treatment with E or TP. When sacrificed on the day following the last injection, the controls had small testes without spermatogenesis and underdeveloped seminal vesicles. Especially, in one of the neonatally estrogenized mice, one of the testes was markedly damaged. Injections of TP, TP plus PMS or PMS plus HCG for 30 consective days restored the testicular activities in neonatally androgenized mice. Although the testes were smaller than in the controls given neonatal oil injections, active spermatogenesis was going on in a majority of the seminiferous tubules. By contrast, injections of TP and/or gonadotropins failed to restore normal spermatogenesis in a majority of the neonatally estrogenized mice, about 20 to 30% of the animals having one or both testes severely damaged. However, interstitial cells of the testes underwent hypertrophy and hyperplasia in response to the gonadotropin injections in animals given either E or TP neonatally, although the stimulation was slight in those given neonatal TP followed by TP plus PMS. The seminal vesicles grafted from infantile males into neonatally estrogenized mice were androgenically stimulated when recovered after injections of gonadotropins for 25 days. Leydig cells of the hosts' own testes were hypertrophied. However, as in neonatally estrogenized mice given injections of androgen, the hosts' glands remained atrophic, containing no secretion in the lumen.

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A radioimmunoassay (RIA) method for somatostatin (SRIF) utilizing rabbit antiserum against synthetic SRIF coupled with human serum α-globulin is described. Synthetic N^α-tyrosylated SRIF was labelled with ¹²⁵I using the lactoperoxidase method and purified on a Sephadex G-10 column. This assay system was highly specific for SR IF and did not cross-react with hypothalamic trophic hormones, pituitary trophic hormones or gastrointestinal hormones.
The effect of streptozotocin induced diabetes on the SRIF content was examined in the pancreas, the pancreatic islets, as well as the hypothalamus of rats. SRIF content in both the pancreas and islets of the diabetic rats was shown by RIA to have significantly increased. However, content in the hypothalamus of the diabetic rats did not differ from that of the control. The physiological and pathophysiological significance of the SRIF changes remains to be determined.

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In the anterior pituitaries of adult rats of both sexes, follicular cells resemble marginal layer cells in fine structure. Numerous occurrences of cilia were electronmicroscopically confirmed on the free surface of both cells. The absence of secretory granules, the poor development of endoplasmic reticula and abundant free ribosomes and polysomes are the other coincidental cytological properties between both cells showing the immaturity. Thus, the two cells seem to be intimately related. The follicular cells may play an important role in the mitotic activity of the gland. Cilia and microvilli on the free surface of follicular cells are not easily changed by some experimental conditions.

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An enzyme-linked receptor assay (ERA) for hCG was developed using horseradish peroxidase. The 1, 500g pellets, interstitial cell fraction, and solubilized homogenate from the rat testis linked to tanned sheep red blood cells (SRBC) were used as the binding fractions for hCG. In these ERA systems, the limit of detection for hCG was 30 IU/l (3-12 mIU/tube), which was almost equal to that of radio receptor assay (RRA). The ERA using SRBC linked solubilized receptor fraction showed the most satisfactory result in accuracy, reproducibility and easiness.

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Proestrus surges of serum LH, FSH and prolactin (PRL) were significantly reduced when morphine HCl (50 and 10mg/kg) was administered to 4-day cycling rats just prior to the proestrous critical period. The inhibitory effect ofmorphine was reversed by naloxone, a morphine antagonist, at the dose which had no effect on the proestrus surges of serum LH, FSH or PRL. The hypothalmic LH-RF content of proestrous rats at 1800 hr (during the proestrus surge) was not significantly different from that at 1400 hr (before the surge) and was not affected by pretreatment with morphine or naloxone. Our results suggest that naloxone reverses the antiovulatory effect of morphine by antagonizing the inhibitory effect of morphine on preovulatory surges of gonadotropins or PRL.

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