Recently, L-dopa has been known as one of drugs to stimulate the secretion of growth hormone from the pituitary gland through dopamine, which is a metabolic of L-dopa, without any changes of serum insulin levels, blood sugar values, fatty acids and amino acids concentrations in the serum of human being. The present study was thus designed to assess the effect of L-dopa on the pituitary gland to secrete the growth hormone in the normal subject and the study was further extended to compare the response of the pituitary secretion of the growth hormone following the administration of L-dopa between in the patient with diabetes mellitus and in the normal subject. In the present experiment, 5 normal subjects and 11 diabetes mellitus without obesity were employed and they received a 30 min infusion of 200 mg L-dopa dissolved in 200 ml physiological saline. In normal subjects, serum growth hormone concentration measured by radio-immunoassay was started to increase within 10 min after L-dopa administration and maximum value of serum growth hormone was obtained 60 min after the drug, mean values of it, 30 ng/ml of serum. Then it was declined sharply upto the values of 2-3 ng/ml. In the patients with diabetes mellitus, on the other hand, maximum value of serum concentration of the growth hormone was only approximately 5 ng/ml of serum obtained between 45 and 75 min after the administration of L-dopa. No changes in the serum concentration of IRI (Immunoreactive insulin) and of blood sugar values were observed by the infusion of L-dopa in both normal subjects and diabetes mellitus. From the above mentioned facts, it was concluded that the ability of pituitary gland to secrete the growth hormone was considerably impaired in diabetics when it was compared with normal subjects.
The case was a 33-year-old woman with hypertension and hypokalemia, who presented depression of renin activity and the abnormal elevation of plasma deoxycorticosterone (DOC) and 11-deoxycortisol on laboratory tests. After admission, abdominal CT scan, 131I-adosterol scintigram and adrenal venogram revealed a tumor in the left adrenal, which histologically seemed to be benign. When the tumor was resected, blood pressure and all the biochemical data returned to normal range. DOC and 11-deoxycortisol levels in the tumor were abnormally elevated as compared with those in the normal adrenal tissue. These findings suggested that the abnormal elevation of hormone levels resulted from depression of 11 beta-hydroxylase. Though numerous adrenal tumors have been documented, we rarely encounter an apparently benign adrenal tumor that produces 2 kinds of hormones. This seemed to be the first case of benign adrenal tumor in which both DOC and 11-deoxycortisol were elevated.
A patient, 38-year-old man, with hemorrhage into a prolactin-secreting pituitary adenoma, or pituitary apoplexy, is reported. On his admission, clinical examinations revealed typical stigmata indicating that he suffered from an acute attack of pituitary apoplexy probably induced by acute meningitis. He survived the acute attack and recovered spontaneously without an urgent operation. Although there was no suspicious sign and symptom of hypopituitarism, the first study performed immediately after the attack suggested strongly that hypopituitarism might acutely developed during the hemorrhage into the tumor. Moreover, the follow-up studies indicated that TSH, LH and ADH recovered spontaneously from the initial damage following the resorption of hemorrhage for the next 3 months.
Tracer doses of 131I-(Carrier free), 13II-T3 and 13II-T4 were administered po to 19 healthy male volunteers at intervals 2 to 8 weeks to study whether or not part of the iodide generated in the kidney from T3 and T4 deiodination may enter the renal tubular lumen and be excreted in the urine without entering the blood stream. U(urine)/T(thyroid) ratios of the radioactivity from these materials were employed as the index of the comparison. U/T ratios were severalfold higher 24 h after 131I-T3 or 131I-T4 administration than after 131I-The data indicate that the 131I-derived from T3 and T4 metabolism is more readily excreted into urine than 13II-which reaches the kidney as inorganic iodide.
In the last stage of alcohol fermentation with, starchy materials, it is important to convert residual dextrin, which remains in the mash and is not easily hydrolyzed into fermentable sugar, in order to reduce the length of the fermentation period and to increase the fermentation efficiency. So we got residual dextrin from potato starch with mold amylase and studied to obtain submerged mold culture containing the enzyme which can powerfully convert that dextrin. And then several properties of this enzyme were investigated. (1) Asp. awamori var. fumeus 6321 which was selected in the previous study was also superior in this case and its superiority for alcohol fermentation was confirmed (Table 1). (2) This enzyme was hardly destroyed by treatment, at pH 2.5, 37°, 30min., when mold culture fluids of Asp. awamori type strains were used. But in case of Asp. oryzae and Rhizopus the destruction was extreme. (Table 2). (3) When it is treated at 55°, 15min., this enzyme was not much destroyed at pH 4.8, but it was destroyed considerably at pH 3.5 and the destruction was extreme at pH 7.0 (Table 3). (4) The optimal pH of this enzyme reaction was about 4.8 in 1 hour of reaction period, but in case of amylase it was about 5.2 and maltase about 4.0 (Fig. 1). (5) We assumed through the following facts that this residual dextrin is not hydrolyzed by single enzyme (A) In 3 hours the optimal pH is about 4.0 (Fig. 1). (B) In acid and heat treatment the different results are obtained between different mold strains. (Table 2 and 3). (C) The reducing power decreases during mold enzyme is reacting as shown in Table 3. This fact suggests the existence of some synthetic enzyme. (D) Ratios of conversion power to hydrolyzing power changes mold strain differs as shown in Table 4.
