The Interrelation of the Surviving Heart and Pancreas of the Dog in Sugar

The problem of sugar metabolism and diabetes is intimately associated with the two following questions: (1) Does the pancreas have a local independent action on dextrose passing through its blood vessels, altering the dextrose in some way for utilization by the body tissues? (2) Is there a direct interrelation between the pancreas and body tissues in dextrose metabolism, and if so, how is it accomplished? In the experimental work reported below the attempt has been made to gain some evidence as to the first of these questions by the direct perfusion of the pancreas with physiological concentrations of dextrose. The second question has been studied by various types of perfusion experiments on the isolated surviving heart and pancreas in order to determine whether there was any interdependence between the two in dextrose metabolism.