A chemical study of mucin in fibrocystic disease of the pancreas.

an altered secretion from the mucous glands was the basis of this disorder. Two possible causes for this alteration were suggested: first, deficiency of mucus, and secondly, excess of vagal activity, the latter being due to autonomic imbalance in the control ofmucous gland secretions. No further evidence was produced to support these theories. Bodian (1952), in his survey of cases purely from the clinical and histological point of view, conceived of the disease as a 'mucosis', or a congenital disorder of mucus production. Shwachman, Leubner and Catzel (1955) measured the viscosity of duodenal fluid obtained by intubation from cases of this disease and found that the fluid was more viscous than fluid from subjects with normal pancreatic function. Apart from these observations which have been confirmed by others, there has been no evidence recorded to show that the mucin produced by mucus-secreting glands in these cases is any different from that produced by normal subjects. No chemical studies of the mucin in this disease have been reported. Buchanan and Rapoport (1952) made a chemical comparison of normal meconium and meconium from patients with meconium ileus,