THE EFFECT OF AMINES ON THE BLOOD SUGAR OF THE RAT

¹ Department of Pharmacology, Temple University School of Medicine, Philadelphia 40, Pennsylvania

1. A survey of the action of 24 amines on the blood sugar of the rat indicates that this sympathetic response is only elicited by epinephrine and compounds closely related in structure to epinephrine.

2. The structural requirements for hyperglycemic activity include a catechol or phenol ring and a nitrogen which is not ‘masked’ by either a large group attached to the nitrogen or to the carbon to which the nitrogen is joined.

3. Of the compounds which do not produce hyperglycemia there are two types:

(1) those which do not combine with the epinephrine receptors in the liver, and

(2) those which combine with these receptors and which may thus prevent epinephrine hyperglycemia. An analysis of the data indicates that epinephrine combines by means of its nitrogen atom, and produces glycogenolysis after this combination through the functional phenolic group.