BLOOD ACTH IN MAN: “ACTIVE” AND “ACTIVABLE” FRACTIONS

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Abstract
IN PREVIOUS investigations by the authors, corticotropic activity in human blood has been demonstrated by injecting plasma directly into hypophysectomized rats according to a technique elsewhere described (1, 2), and assaying ACTH by the adrenal ascorbic acid-depletion method. By this procedure, the corticotropic activity was found in the ultrafiltrates of plasma (3, 4). This led us to postulate that ACTH may occur in blood in a simple form, easily ultrafiltrable. Sydnor and Sayers (5) have shown that, in the rat, blood ACTH may be determined after extracting and processing it by the Astwood's oxycellulose technique. Similar results were obtained by us, using hog blood (6). The foregoing observations, as well as the discordant findings reported in other studies of the blood ACTH in man, have led us to carry out comparative investigations on human blood. Blood ACTH, therefore, was assayed either by our own technique or by Astwood's oxycellulose procedure as modified by Bartholomew (7). The results obtained indicate that besides an “active,” ultrafiltrable ACTH, there is also an “activable” ACTH in human blood.

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