ATTEMPTS TO ASSAY MELANOPHORE HORMONE IN THE BLOOD OF MAN*

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Abstract
A quantal assay employing the isolated skin of Rana pipiens was used to investigate procedures that have been reported to extract melanophore hormone (MH) from the blood of normal persons. Modifications of the acid-acetone process resulted in a method that allowed satisfactory recovery of the MH in human anterior and posterior pituitary tissue when added to human blood. Application of this procedure to 20-ml. specimens of blood from 11 normal persons and from 18 patients who had varying clinical states of cutaneous pigmentation yielded uniformly negative results. Likewise, procedures known to potentiate human MH did not yield positive results when applied to the blood of normal persons. Estimation of the comparative sensitivities of various assays of MH as employed in the past showed no great difference between the extinction point of the assay used herein and the previous assays whereby positive results were obtained. It was concluded that the amount of MH in the peripheral blood of man is less than 0.001 gamma per milliliter.