Hormone for Ulcers

A possible cure for stomach ulcers was last week announced by an eminent physiologist, Andrew Conway Ivy of Northwestern University. Most doctors hold that ulcers are caused by an overactive stomach, which constantly gushes acid, erodes its own walls. For years Dr. Ivy has tried to curb this acid formation. To the members of the American Physiological Society meeting in Chicago last week he described a hormone which seems to turn the trick: enterogastrone, extracted from hog intestines.

To test the hormone, Dr. Ivy and his workers operated on 30 dogs, cutting off a snip of their small intestine directly below the stomach, and tacking the stomach on again to the second section of the intestine. Such short-circuited dogs usually develop ulcers and die within a few months. Dr. Ivy gave ten of them injections of enterogastrone, three times a day, for seven months. Results: 16 of the untreated dogs (80%) developed ulcers; only one of the treated dogs (10%) was stricken.

Concluded Dr. Ivy: "Enterogastrone is an effective agent in the prevention of stomach ulcers and it may have a practical application in treating this condition in patients. We have not tried it on humans because our preparations are not sufficiently refined, as yet, for human trial."

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