Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1953-10-21
New Tests Moy Leud
To Cure Of Diabetes
Hormone Experiments
With Rots Ruise Hopes
By Thomos R. Henry

A new approach to the problem Of
an eventual cure for diabetes - now
comfortable but not curable-has Just
been reported to colleagues at the Ma
tional Institutes Of Health here by DR..
Bernado A. Houssay, Argentine Nobel
Prize winner for his work in endocrine
gland therapy.
DR.. HouSsay is q collaboration Of the
National Institutes and now is carrying
out some experiments there. BY treat
ment with the female sex hormones,
the so-called estrogens. in conjunction
with tnSulin, DR.. Houssay reported,
some of his colleagues in Buenos Aires
have been able to obtain apparently
permanent diabetes cures in rats. He
warned. however, that this specific pro-
cedure does not seem to work in hu.
man beings and only offers a promising
clue to possibilities along similar lines
which still are unexplored.
Diabetes results from a failure of the
body's sugar-burning mechanism due
to lack OF the hormone. insulin, which
is secreted by tiny groups of endocrine
cells, the So-called isles of Langerhans.
in the pancreas. The failure to secure
sufficient insulin secretion may be due
to physical injury or disease Of the
pancreas, or it can be brought about
by certain drugs or substances in the
diet during forced feeding. It can al
ways be caused by partial removal Of
the pancreas.
No Longer Fatal.
The disease still is one Of the great
scourgeS of civilized man, although
since the discovery of insulin early in
the century it can be kept under fair
control and no longer is highly fatal.
Insulin injections, however, must be
continued throughout life. They are
the possibility Of an actual cure hardly
has been suggested.
His Argentine colleagues and stu
dents, DR.. HouSsay reported here, noted
the hitherto unobServed fact that the
incidence and severity of diabetic. de-
velopment in female rats from whom
a large part of the pancreas had been
removed were much less than among
males. They coud be brought up to about
the same level, however, by administer
ing the male sex hormone testosterone.
The incidence in males, on the other
hand, could be reduced to about the
level found in females by injections Of
the estrogens.
In no instance did this treatment
alone bring about a cure" When 1t
was combined with insulin, however,
some apparently permanent remis-
SionS have been obtained. These rats
M longer need the insulin injections.
The female hormones apparently have
the effect of stimulating the develop
ment of new beta" cells. in insulin
secreting ones, in what is left Of the
pancreaS.
Many Tests Required.
Now the estrogens are So-called
'steroids." They have the same basic
chemical structure as cortisone and
some other adrenal gland hormones
SecretionS. The hope apparently lies,
DR.. Houssay says, in me-consuming
tests with the large number Of steroids
found in nature which will have the
same stimulating effect in human be-
ings as the female hormones in rats.
Even If the female hormones worked
with man, DR.. Houssay points out,
there would be undesirable side effects
such as an excessive Termination Of
the male body.
But it may be found, he stresses,
that some other steroids can provide the
same beta cell stimulation, with nc
undesirable side effects.
Curiously enough, he points out, in
humans diabetes following damage to
the pancreas is more pronounced in
women than in men-precisely the OPP
posite sex reaction to that found in
rats.
Although his reports on the Argen-
tine work were received with great
interest here, Dr.. Houssay himself
stresses that they are significant only
in pointing out a new and promising
direction for research. He has hesitated
at making any public announcement
because, he says, "It would be tragic to
hold out hope for curing diabetes to its
thousands of victims when no cure has
been found for man and the clue may
prove false"