THE ACTION OF VARIOUS REAGENTS ON INSULIN

In the course of our studies on the chemical nature of insulin, it became of interest to make a quantitative investigation of the behavior of the cystine and amino nitrogen of the hormone under conditions leading either to reversible or irreversible inactivation. This was necessitated by numerous qualitative observations which suggested a relationship between pharmacodynamic function and the presence of the dithio (--S--S-) linkages and certain free amino groups in the insulin molecule (l-5). For the sake of brevity we present only a synopsis of our observations and a tabulation of the results.