Endocrine control of blood sugar, lipaemia, and ketonaemia in diabetic baboons.

Complete removal of the pancreas from normal baboons, as in other mammals, leads to the development of the classical features of diabetes, including hyper glycaemia, ketonaemia and ketonuria, polydipsia, and polyuria. Investigation of the diabetic state in experi mental baboons revealed that the severity of the ketosis could not be correlated with the degree of hyperlipaemia or with the hyperglycaemia, and that the extent of the hyperglycaemia did not influence the hyperlipaemia (Gillman et al., 1958a). On the basis of experiments conducted in dogs, cats, and rats, it is generally believed that the fundamental disorder of carbohydrate meta bolism in diabetic animals is alleviated by hypophysec tomy, or by adrenalectomy, and that the administration of pituitary extracts and of adrenocortical hormones will once again restore the diabetic picture in depan creatized-hypophysectomized and in depancreatized adrenalectomized animals respectively (Houssay and Biasotti, 1931 ; and Long and Lukens, 1936). Reinvestigation of the role of the hypophysis and of the adrenal in depancreatized baboons not receiving insulin will show that the severity of the diabetes, as assessed by the hyperglycaemia and glycosuria, is not immediately alleviated by hypophysectomy although the clinical condition of the baboon is improved. It will also become apparent from the data presented below, taken in conjunction with previously reported experi ments (Gillman et al.9 1958a), that each aspect of the disorder of lipid metabolism is dependent upon a parti cular pattern of endocrine function. It is suggested that analysis of the various lipid fractions in the blood as well as of the blood sugar and blood ketones in each human diabetic may afford a useful guide to the relative participation of the endocrine glands in maintaining the disorder of metabolism.