Studies on the nature of the amphibian organization Centre II—Induction by synthetic polycyclic hydrocarbons

Authors:
  • CWC. H. Waddington
    C. H. Waddington
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Abstract
The connection between the growth and differentiation, or dedifferentia­tion, of tumour tissue and the normal processes of growth and develop­ment which take place during ontogeny is obscure; the problem has hardly yet been studied from a modern point of view. Some connection here must be. It is clear that one of the questions which must be answered about tumours is the question of how the tissue has escaped from the control of those agents which govern the ordinary growth of the body. In animals in which regeneration occurs it is known that the regenerative growth is controlled by agents which in many respects behave like the organization centres on which the earlier embryonic development is so largely dependent. Even in other animals the normal repair-growth of the body is probably dominated by factors of the same general type. Various lines of work are now being tested to see whether any connection can be found between the phenomena of tumour forma­tion and regeneration or other aspects of the activity of organization centres. The accumulation of evidence suggesting that the active principle of the amphibian organization centre, the evocator, is an unsaponifiable ether-soluble substance, suggested that it might be worth investigating whether any of the known members of this biologically active group of substances could produce the effects normally associated with the evocator. For the preliminary investigation some of the carcinogenic and œstro­genic substances recently prepared by Cook (1933, 1934) were chosen. Their activity was tested by the methods described in the preceding paper, namely, by the implantation into the cavity of young amphibian gastrulæ of small pieces of coagulated egg-albumen which contained, in an emulsified form, the substance to be tested.

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