Since the isolation of the oxytocic principle from the posterior pituitary, the biological standardization of this principle has been made most extensively on the excised uterus of virgin guinea-pig mounted in a bath containing oxygenated Locke's solution (
Guinea-pig Method).
Notwithstanding the high sensitivity of the excised guinea-pig uterus, it is by no means completely satisfactory in defining the responses quantitatively, the fact which is well known to any laboratory worker who ever resorted to this method of standardization, and that is the reason why development of another more reliable quantitative method is desired.
Factors that make the guinea-pig uterus unsuitable for quantifying its response to the oxytocic principle may be summarized as follows:
1. Whereas the uterus suitable for the guinea-pig method must be that of an animal in a definite stage of its growth, neither too young nor too mature, the body weight of an animal is by no means a faithful representation of the development of its sexual organ, i.e., uterus. Therefore, actual suitability of the uterus cannot be predicted until we have sacrificed the animal. In our experience, availability of a suitable uterus is less than one in every 5 animals sacrificed.
2. In many cases, uteri which soon after extirpation respond satisfactorily to the hormone become so sensitized sooner or later by the added hormone, as to interfere with further observations.
3. Guinea-pig uterus has a tendency of developing tetanic contractions in response to the hormone, i. e., it has a tendency of developing an “all or none” type response, which is unsuitable for quantifying the result.
4. Both contraction and relaxation of the guinea-pig uterus are rather slow processes, and even after the hormone has been washed out, it takes relatively long time to regain its initial relaxed state.
5. The response of the guinea-pig uterus to the hormone is generally inconstant.
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