Serum Polysaccharide Changes In The Rat Following Hypophysectomy And The Administration Of Pituitary Growth Hormone

AN ELEVATION of protein bound polysaccharides occurs in the serum of patients with cancer, various of the collagen diseases, tuberculosis, and sarcoidosis (Seibert, Seibert, Atno and Campbell, 1947 and Shetlar et al., 1950). An elevation of serum polysaccharide is also found in late pregnancy (Shetlar et al., 1950). Fever and processes incidental to tissue destruction (Seibert et al., 1947) or to tissue proliferation (Shetlar et al., 1949) have been postulated to be associated with these findings. Injuries to experimental animals including bacterial infection, turpentine abscesses, intraperitoneal talc insufflation, surgical procedures (Shetlar et al., 1949) epidermal thermal injury (Knobloch et al., 1952) and pyrogen induced fever (Shetlar et al., 1953) produce a rise of serum polysaccharide. The mechanisms by which these changes are produced present intriguing avenues of investigation as such elevations may reflect chemical aspects fundamentally related to these conditions.