A Substance in Animal Tissues which stimulates Ketone-Body Excretion

Abstract

IT has been known for many years that the glycosuria of clinical diabetes can be prevented by feeding a very high fat diet. Petren¹ showed that if the fat content of the diet was sufficiently great and if the protein content was restricted, the ketosis of diabetes could likewise be abolished. This observation was confirmed by Marks and Young² in dogs rendered permanently diabetic by the injection of anterior pituitary extract. They showed not only that a diet consisting entirely of beef suet produced a remission of diabetic glycosuria and ketonuria, but also that the addition of raw horse meat to such a diet caused an exacerbation of ketone body excretion. They were able to extract the factor in the horse meat responsible for the ketonuria and demonstrated that this material was not present in significant quantities in casein. Burn, Lewis and Kelsey³ showed that alloxan-diabetic rats could be maintained without glycosuria on a high fat diet. Born-stein and Nelson⁴ extended these observations and noted that alloxan-diabetic rats exhibiting ketonuria on moderately high fat diets ceased to excrete ketone bodies when the fat content of the diet exceeded 70 per cent. Lazaris and Brzezhinskaya⁵ demonstrated that the critical factor in the ketosis of diabetic rats on a high fat diet was the presence or absence of animal protein in the diet. When ‘albumenous’ material was added to the diet, ketosis ensued, whereas other dietary constituents had no ketogenic effect.