This Article Full Text (PDF) Submit a related Letter to the Editor Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Reprints, Permissions and Rights Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Downs, A. W. Articles by Eddy, N. B. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Downs, A. W. Articles by Eddy, N. B.

EFFECT OF SUBCUTANEOUS INJECTIONS OF THYMUS SUBSTANCE IN YOUNG RABBITS

Physiological Laboratory, McGill University Montreal, Canada

Abstract

In a previous paper one of us (N. B. E.) reported the effect on full-grown rabbits of subcutaneous injections of desiccated thymus substance (Armour & Company). The doses administered were 10 mgm. and 20 mgm. per kilogram of body weight dissolved in a mixture of one part of glycerine to four parts of physiological saline solution. For control, other rabbits were injected with the glycerine-saline mixture. Each rabbit received forty injections during a period of eight weeks. At the conclusion of the experiment, half of the rabbits were autopsied. Both control and thymus rabbits gained in weight, the former 18.31 per cent, the latter 17.85 per cent. There was no apparent difference in the behavior of the two groups of animals. At autopsy the thyroid glands of the thymus rabbits averaged slightly heavier, 8.57 per cent, than those of the controls. There were no differences in the other organs.

Before this paper appeared, Olkon reported a series of experiments in which he had injected desiccated thymus gland (Armour & Company) suspended in physiological saline solution intraperitoneally into young guinea-pigs. He found that the injections produced marked loss of weight, muscular spasms and convulsions. As a control he injected into other guinea-pigs desiccated muscle protein. These injections caused similar results but in degree much less marked. He concluded, therefore, that the effect in the first case was a specific toxic action of the thymus substance. However, the doses of thymus substance which he employed were not based on body weight. He does not state the dose of desiccated muscle protein used.