The single moiety of ACTH has been debated. Variable clinical responses observed with different lots of ACTH standardized by the adrenal ascorbic acid depletion method gave credance to the concept of the multiplicity of the biological activity of ACTH preparations. Recent papers by Reinhardt, Geschwind & Li (1951), Moyer et al. (1952) and Ingle & Li (1952) describe differentiation between ACTH protein and ACTH peptide preparations on the basis of variations in response by the Sayers' adrenal ascorbic acid depletion method and the adrenal-weight-increase assay. Raben et al. (1952) noted a marked enhancement in the clinical effectiveness of purified ACTH despite the fact that the same preparations, when assayed by the adrenal ascorbic acid depletion technique, failed to show any evidence of increase in activity. Halkerston & Badrick (1951) suggested using differential assays in addition to the adrenal ascorbic acid depletion method in order to correlate all the effects of ACTH. These observations are in support of the contention that several distinct biological functions are present in purified ACTH. In view of the variable clinical effect with different lots of ACTH, all standardized by the adrenal ascorbic acid depletion technique, it was felt that an »assay« procedure for ACTH in the human would be appropriate.
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