THE ROLE OF THE LIVER IN THE INACTIVATION OF THE MELANOCYTE STIMULATING HORMONE IN THE BODY

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Abstract
WHEN melanocyte stimulating hormone (MSH) is injected into an animal, the blood level of MSH decreases rapidly thereafter (1). As only a small portion of injected MSH is excreted in the urine (2), the hormone is either rapidly destroyed or bound by tissue in the body. As the inactivation of posterior pituitary hormones (3, 4) and gonadotrophic hormone (5, 6) by the liver has been reported previously, the role of liver in the rapid disappearance of MSH from the circulation has been studied. Previously Eser and Tuzunkam (7) reported the inactivation of MSH by the liver of rat, pigeon and frog in vitro but Durlach and Cachin (8) could not observe the inactivation of MSH by the liver in vivo. In the present study MSH was administered to hepatectomized dogs and to dogs with injured liver and the disappearance rate of injected MSH from the circulation in the dogs was compared with that in normal dogs.