Thyrocalcitonin

Excerpt

Already much has been learned about the chemical nature, pharmacology, and possible physiological significance of thyrocalcitonin, the potent hypocalcemic, hypophosphatemic principle of the thyroid gland discovered by Hirsch, Gauthier, and Munson (1) in 1963. The recent finding that it is present in the human thyroid gland (2, 3) and the demonstration that pig thyrocalcitonin is active in man (2, 4) now focus attention on its likely importance in medicine as a factor in certain disease states and as a useful diagnostic and therapeutic agent.

The early identification of thyrocalcitonin as a polypeptide because of its lability to the action of