APPLICATION OF THE AXOLOTL METAMORPHOSIS REACTION TO THE QUANTITATIVE ASSAY OF THYROID GLAND HORMONES

Abstract

The Biological Laboratory and the Museum of the Sverdlov University have been conducting, since 1921, experiments on the process and conditions of metamorphosis of axolotls under the influence of the thyroid gland. In a number of papers since 1923–24 (1, 2, 3, 4), the method is described of implantation of tissues and organs of animals into the bodies of the axolotls for the purpose of detecting the thyroid gland hormone in those tissues and organs. In this connection has been discovered not only the possibility of finding thyroxin in the tissues of hyperthyroidized fowls and mammals, but also of making deductions with regard to the quantitative distribution of the thyroxin, depending upon the velocity and degree of axolotl reaction. We base this idea on the natural assumption that the greater the velocity of the metamorphosis, the greater the amount of thyroxin in the tissue implanted into the given axolotl.