Maternal Inheritance of Protoporphyrins of the Harderian Glands in Mice

Conclusion

Thus the conclusion seems justified that another parallelism between cancer susceptibility and the presence of protoporphyrin in the Harderian gland is evident (maternal inheritance). Such a series of observations (even though they be in the nature of parallelism or correlation only) seems to be more than fortuitous. The level of protoporphyrins in the Harderian gland is probably a reflection of protoporphyrin metabolism throughout the body, and whether protoporphyrins (probably by a sensitizing action) have any effect on cancer or not must be tested further by the suitable administration of protoporphyrins to experimental animals. This experiment is in progress.