The Composition of Pancreatic Juice as Compared to Sweat, Parotid Saliva and Tears.

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Abstract
Summary.: The concentrations of sodium, potassium, chloride, bicarbonate. glucose, urea and the pH of pancreatic juice, obtained in response to secretion, were examined in two dogs over a 100‐fold range of variation in secretory rate. The concentrations of sodium and of potassium were 161 (± 4) and 5.3 (± 1.1) mEq per liter respectively and independent of secietory rate. The concentration of bicarbonate was independent of secretory rate at flows exceeding 0.5 ml per minute and averaged 120 mEq per liter in one of the dogs and 85 mEq per liter in the other. At secretory rates lower than 0.5 ml per minute the concentration of bicarbonate gradually dropped to values equal to or lower than plasma concentration. The concentration of chloride varied inversely with that of bicarbonate, the sum of the concentrations of the two anions amounting to 87 (± 5) per cent of the sum of the concentrations of the two cations at all secretory rates. The pH averaged 8.05 at secretory ratos exceeding 0.5 ml per minute. The secretion/plasma concentration ratio for urea was 0.9 and 0.8 in the two dogs and in dependent of secretory rate. The secretion/plasma concentration ratio for glucose was approximately 0.2 and independent of the. concentration of glucose in the plasma.The findings are compared to previous similar studies on human sweat. parotid saliva and tears. The hypothesis is forwarded that glandular secretion involves the formation of precursor solutions which are modified by the reabsorption of sodium and of water in the ducts of the sweat and parotid glands. whereas similar reabsorptive processes cannot be demonstrated in the case of the lacrymal and pancreatic glands. Moreover. glucose appears to he conserved by the sweat and parotid glands. but not by the two other glands.