‘Erythrocytin’ and ‘Erythrochelatin’

Abstract

IN a recent communication¹, Beckett and Smith have described a thermolabile inhibitor acting on 8-hydroxyquinoline (‘Oxine’), which is either liberated or produced by erythrocytes and for which they have proposed the term ‘erythrocytin’. To avoid confusion, my associates and I wish to direct attention to the fact that we have applied the same name to the clotting factor which we discovered in the erythrocytes². This, agent resembles the clotting principle occurring in the platelets, but is considerably more potent and has properties sufficiently characteristic to warrant regarding it as a distinct substance. We considered the name ‘erythrocytin’ particularly suitable because the ending ‘in’ is the same as in thromboplastin. The term has been employed in several of our publications^3–5 during the past year and in the titles of two of these communications^3,4.