Chemical Studies on the Pituitary Gonado- Tropic Hormone

Fevold et al. (1) and Wallen-Lawrence (2) have reported the separation of a follicle-stimulating principle and a luteinizing principle from hypophyseal gonadotropic preparations. The latter author includes evidence for a chemical separation involving destruction of the luteinizing principle by formalin. Maxwell (3) on the other hand was able to obtain a pure follicular ovarian response simply by sufficiently distributing the dosage of unfractionated hypophyseal preparations. In the present paper the formalin-treated hypophyseal preparations of Wallen-Lawrence were studied under various conditions of dosage. The action of various other chemically reactive compounds upon gonadotropic preparations was also investigated. It was hoped by this attack that evidence for or against the dual hormone theory and information relating to the structural groups concerned with the physiological activity might be obtained.