CHANGES IN THE DISTRIBUTION AND CONCENTRATION OF ALKALINE PHOSPHATASES IN TISSUES OF THE RAT AFTER HYPOPHYSECTOMY OR GONADECTOMY, AND AFTER REPLACEMENT THERAPY1

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Abstract
It is becoming increasingly evident that hormones exert their regulatory effects on tissues and organs by influencing the rate of enzymatic processes. Hertz (1945) has shown that estrogen requires the presence of folic acid, now regarded as a prosthetic group of an enzyme, to produce growth of the chick’s oviduct. Biddulph, Meyer and McShan (1946) have demonstrated changes in the concentration of succinic dehydrogenase and other enzymes in the ovaries of rats during different stages of the reproductive cycle. Huggins and Russell (1946) investigated the effects of various hormonal conditions upon the concentration of phosphatases in the prostate gland. Fluctuations in the alkaline phosphatase activity of the uterus have been correlated with the reproductive cycle in mice and in primates (Atkinson and Engle, 1947; Atkinson and Elftman, 1947). Cytochemical studies in this laboratory have also revealed, as incidental observations, that phosphatases vary in different physiological states.