1. The methods of Parker which involve the use of a fluid medium and a high oxygen tension have been applied to the in vitro maintenance of endocrine organs. Best results were obtained with fragments of thyroid, testis, epididymis, Fallopian tube and the anterior lobe of the pituitary of immature and adult guinea pigs and rabbits. 2. Inconsistent results were obtained with ovary. Adrenal tissue and capsule invariably underwent degeneration. 3. Evidences of growth (areas of proliferation and mitotic figures) were observed only in the case of the pituitary. 4. It is concluded that the conditions under which one endocrine organ may be successfully maintained in vitro are not necessarily the same as those required by another.
(1) Mature rats produce more antihormone principle in response to injections of anterior pituitary-like gonadotropic preparations than rats which are immature when treatment is begun. (2) Of 2 gonadotropic preparations tested, the one containing a large amount of protein evoked less antihormone production but more precipitins than the one containing less antigenic material.
THE IHITLAX REPORT of Houssay and his coworkers (I) on anemia following hypophysectomy in the rabbit, together with Cushing‚s description (2) of an erythremia as part of the basophilic syndrome, stimulated a number of experimental investigations into the effects of pituitary disturbances on the blood picture (3, 4, 5). In earlier work a hematological significance has been attributed to the thyroid (6–10) and the adrenal cortex (I1, I2, I3), while more recently the importance of the anterior pituitary has been emphasised. Meyer, Stewart, Thewlis and Rusch (I4) concluded that hypophyses tomy in rats resulted in an anemia. Flaks, Himmel and Zlotnick (I5) reported a thermostable anterior pituitary fraction which stimulated erythrocyte prcduction in rats. Overbeek (4) failed to find any anemia in rats after hypophysectomy. Overbeek and Querido (16), however, described a decrease in numbers of erythrogenic elements in the bone marrow of hypophysectomized rats.
