Comparative studies on the respiratory enzyme activities of thyroid, adrenal cortex and adrenal medulla.

In the author's contemplated studies of physiological analysis of functional activity of several significant endocrine glands, it was thought to be of much fundamental importance to examine metabolic patterns which characterize respective glands. In spite of a large amount of data hitherto reported concerning oxygen consumption of endocrine glands(McShan and Meyer, 1946; Weiss, 1951; Sorkes and Heneage, 1952), apparent lack of comparative observation of characteristic features in respective glands may be pointed out. Based on such a consideration, the author has been engaged in a series of study, some of the results being rendered in the present paper. Following accounts are concerned with some observed characteristics of oxygen consumption of slices or homogenates of the thyroid, adrenal cortex and adrenal medulla in the presence of some exogenous substrates, most of which represented the Krebs cycle intermediates.