Adrenotrophic Activity of Human Blood1

The presence of adrenocorticotrophic hormone, or of a substance or substances possessing adrenotrophic activity, has not been convincingly demonstrated in human urine (Locke, Albert and Kepler, unpublished). We have therefore turned our attention to the blood, in the hope that adrenotrophic material may be present in a concentration sufficiently high to be measured by current assay procedures. A review of the literature pertinent to this subject is summarized in table 1. It appears that the results obtained are conflicting, and that much of this confusion has resulted from the use of test animals with intact pituitaries. Such a procedure does not, of course, permit specific detection of adrenotrophic activity in the material tested. Thus, there is considerable doubt as to the validity of all results obtained with human blood, with the sole exception of those obtained by Cooke, Graetzer and Reiss (1948).