The stimulating influence of serum on pancreatic amylase / by B.B. Crohn and A.A. Epstein.

  • Crohn, Burrill Bernard, 1884-1983.
Date:
1914
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The stimulating influence of serum on pancreatic amylase / by B.B. Crohn and A.A. Epstein. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    9/10 (page 323)
    GENERAL SUMMARY. The results of these experiments may be summarized as fol- lows: Small quantities of serum possess the power of increasing the amylolytic action of pancreatic extracts and pancreatic secre- tion by two, three or more than four-fold. This power is not diminished by boiling the serum nor by incubating it at 38°C. for many hours. The activating power of serum is lessened by dialysis. The salts of serum, in the proportion in which they exist in it, are largely responsible for the phenomenon: sodium chloride alone is not. Adrenalin may have a slight positive influ- ence; lecithin has not. The origin of the serum plays no role. If we attribute the greatest part of the activating power to the mineral salts, then the constancy of the phenomenon in differ- ent pathologic sera becomes intelligible, inasmuch as the mineral content of such sera varies but little. Roger5 has found a similar ability, though to a lesser degree in sterilized saliva; Roger6 also found the same for white of egg; Pozerski7 for intestinal secretions. Probably in all the instances, the mineral content was the causa- tive factor. Wohlgemuth8 further has demonstrated that the serum after digestion is only slightly more activating in its effect than in the fasting person, also that the activating power of sera of differ- ent animals varies slightly in the following order: dog, sheep, rabbit, man, rat, horse. Nor is there any material difference between specimens of blood from different veins and different areas of the body. Wohlgemuth also ascertained that serum has the same influence on pancreatic amylase which it has on the amylase derived from other sources in the body, e.g., organ ex- tracts, saliva, etc. Practically from the viewpoint of the physiologist, these facts are of great interest, as it has been found by one of us (Crohn)9 that the pure duodenal contents have an amylolytic activity, which Roger. Arch, de maladie de lube digestif el de la nutrition, iii, p. 509. 1909. \ Roger: Compt. rend. soc. biol., lxiv, p. 16, 1908. T Pozerski: Maly’s Jahresbericht, 1902, p. 400. 5 Wohlgemuth: loc. cit. ’ Loc. cit.