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ROBERT FRANKLIN PITTS
October 24, ·908-fune 6, 1977
BY ROBERT W. BERLINER AND
GERHARD H. GIEBISCH
THE SCIENTIFIC CONTRIBUTIONS of Robert Franklin
Pitts have been a major force in moicting the shape of
renal physiology in the last half-century. There are few as-
pects of kidney function that he did not explore, and his work
illuminated each element that came uncler his scrutiny. But
his contributions to physiology were not limitect to the study
of the kidney. He produced important work in neurophysi-
ology early in his career, making contributions that for many
would be sufficient to lencl prestige to the work of a lifetime,
but that Bob Pitts was able to accomplish in only a few short
years.
Robert F. Pitts was born in Indianapolis on October 24,
190S, the younger of the two children of John Franklin and
Estelle Coffin Pitts. His sister Rebecca, three years his senior,
has proviclec! much of the information about the family back-
ground, chilc~hoocl, ant! upbringing of her younger brother.
Both parents were members of the Society of Friends and
traced their ancestry back to the earliest days of Quakerism.
They had known each other since childhood anct were mar-
riecl in 1899, moving to Inclianapolis the same year. Accorct-
ing to Rebecca Pitts: "Because John Franklin Pitts hac] been
a farmer's son, he was ill-equipped for city life, and for several
years the young couple was very poor. In fact, throughout
323
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BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
Robert's childhooct and youth our circumstances were,
though not poverty stricken, certainly marked by severely
necessary economies anc! occasional periods of real hard-
ship.... Until Robert was about fourteen his social life was
limited to membership in church youth groups. Our parents
had strict notions about keeping us at home in the eve-
nings.... Such an environment gives lessons in the oIct Pu-
ritan virtues of discipline and industry, economy anct careful
planning; and my brother Earned them very well."
At Butler University, which he entered as an unclergrad-
uate a month before his seventeenth birthday, he ctid very
well. According to his sister's account: "He was a member of
Phi Delta Theta a fraternity notes! more for football, at
least on the Butler campus, than for scholarship. But the Phi
Delts were prouct of his scholarship . . . and elected him pres-
ident of the chapter.... Although he was never an athlete
he was a good tennis player, and in his high school and college
years spent many summer afternoons or early mornings on
the court."
After receiving the Bachelor of Science degree from But-
ler at the age of twenty, Bob was awarded a fellowship in
biology at Johns Hopkins University. It hac! been his inten-
tion, first expressed at the age of four (!) in admiration of
the family doctor, to study medicine. It may be assumed that
to obtain a Ph.D. in a basic science was, in view of his financial
limitations, a practical step toward his long-term goal. In any
case, having tract a taste of research in pursuit of his first
doctoral clegree, it became clear to him that research rather
than the practice of medicine was his real passion.
Bob joined the Department of Physiology at the New York
University College of Medicine in 1932, fresh from his cloc-
toral work in biology at Johns Hopkins. His dissertation work
had dealt with physiological processes in amoebae; having
obtainer! his Ph.D., however, he closecl the book on that field
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ROBERT FRANKLIN PITTS
325
ant! never returned to it. In the 1930s, the NYU Department
of Physiology was the center of an intensive exploration of
the function of the kidney. Leadership in renal physiology at
that time was clivided between the group uncler Homer Smith
at NYU and that led by A. N. Richards at the University of
Pennsylvania. The approaches of the two groups were quite
separate anal distinct. Richards and his associates were cle-
veloping and applying the early and by latter-(lay stan-
clards primitive micropuncture techniques. Homer Smith
always considered his greatest contribution to experimental
physiology to have been the trained, intact, unanesthetize(1
clog. Indeed, except for diversions into work with fish in the
summers at the Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory
in Salisbury Cove, Maine, work in the NYU Department of
Physiology stuck pretty closely to the intact dog (or occasion-
ally man), and Bob Pitts's work was no exception. In fact, his
preference for the intact animal (although not necessar-
ily unanesthetized) was reflected in his experimental work
throughout his career, even when most others had shifted,
with greatly improver! instruments and techniques, to the
trail of A. N. Richards and micropuncture.
From 1932 to 193S, Bob Pitts was an active and productive
member of the physiology clepartment. His first paper from
his new environment at NYU clealt with the relationship be-
tween the excretion of inorganic phosphate anc! the plasma
phosphate level in the dog. The subject matter of this work
is noteworthy because it was a later anc! more definitive study
of phosphate reabsorption by the renal tubules that lecT to
what most would consider to be Bob Pitts's most important
single contribution to renal physiology: his work on acidifi-
cation of the urine. During this first six-year period at NYU,
Bob explored the renal mechanisms involvecl in the excretion
of a number of substances: creatine, urea, xylose, hexameth-
enamine, ammonia, anct phenol red. The work was a signif-
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326
.
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
icant contribution to the state of the art at the time, although
it click not leas! to any major new fields of stucly or new ways
of looking at renal function.
During this period, however, Bob found time to enroll as
a medical student and, while continuing his work in the lab-
oratory, managed to complete the work for the M.D. degree
that he was awarded in 1938. It is clear, moreover, that his
completion of medical school was not accomplished in an
offhand way: he graduated at the head of his class anct re-
ceivecl a mecial for his work in pathology, as well as the senior
prizes in both medicine and surgery! Although he never
chose to develop his obvious talent for clinical activities, his
thorough grounding in medicine influenced all his subse-
quent efforts, and he never failed to orient his fundamental
physiological work to clinically important problems and to
call attention to the relevance of his findings to medicine.
Those whose exposure to biomedical science has been lim-
ited to the more recent era of relative affluence and avail-
ability of research funds may imagine that Pitts's coworkers
and technicians kept things running in the lab with only pe-
riodic guidance from him, thus allowing him to continue his
research in the laboratory while giving unstinted attention to
the medical school curriculum. Nothing could be further
from the truth. He did all of his own experiments and all of
the analyses himself. It is also probable, although unclocu-
mented, that he washed his own glassware. Nevertheless, in
that six-year period, he published twelve highly creclitable
papers, and he was the sole author of eleven of them.
Upon graduation from medical school, he chose to launch
into a new field and, as a fellow of the Rockefeller Founcia-
tion, he spent a year at Northwestern University in the labo-
ratory of Magoun and Ranson and the subsequent year in
the Johnson Foundation laboratories at the University of
Pennsylvania with Detlev Bronk. (Both of these were leading
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ROBERT FRANKLIN PITTS
327
laboratories in what would now be called neuroscience.) Al-
though many would hold that one year in a laboratory is
har(lly enough time to accomplish anything much, particu-
larly in a new field, it is apparent that this rule clid not apply
in this instance. The immediate output of that brief period
was eight papers; for seven of them, Pitts was the senior au-
thor. Moreover, he did not merely fall in step with projects
already under way. He built his own electronic equipment
and launched into a new field: the study of the meclulIary
respiratory centers and related phenomena. The judgment
of those familiar with the fielci appears to have been that
these were important contributions to neurophysiology.
Some six years later, when he had already established himself
as the leacling contributor to renal physiology, he was still the
author of textbook chapters on the regulation of respiration.
In fact, he hell! what must have been a unique distinction in
writing, by invitation, a review entitIect "Organization of the
Respiratory Center" for Physiological Reviews and the chapter
on the kidney in Annual Reviews of Physiology, both in the same
year (19461.
In 1940 he returned as an assistant professor to the De-
partment of Physiology at NYU. For two years he continued
his studies on the control of respiration and then moved a
short distance up the east sidle of Manhattan to join the
Department of Physiology at Cornell University Medical
College. It had been his intention to continue his work in
neurophysiology, but the expense of establishing a new lab-
oratory base(1 on electronic equipment, anti the (1ifficulty in
obtaining financial resources to do so, lecl him to abandon
that plan. All that was neectect for his work in renal physiol-
ogy was a little glassware, some chemicals, and a few trained
clogs; so he returned to the stucly of the kidney. The next
four years in New York were a period of productivity that
incluclecl what Bob himself considered to be some of his best
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BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
work. It is easy to concur with his judgment without clispar-
agement of the enormous value of his many contributions in
subsequent years.
The first few papers that Bob Pitts producecT after taking
up his position at Cornell clealt with the mechanisms for the
reabsorption of amino acicis by the renal tubules. He then
returned to work on the reabsorption of phosphate, which
was described in a paper with Robert Alexancler as coauthor:
"The Renal Reabsorptive Mechanism for Inorganic Phos-
phate in Normal ant] Aciclotic Dogs." The essence of this
paper was that phosphate was reabsorbed with a saturable
transport process and that the capacity of this transport pro-
cess was not affecter! by changes in the acid-base status of the
animal.
Many years later, in a 1971 paper entitlec! "Some Aphor-
isms on Research ant} Writing," Bob related how this stucly
lee! to his work on the mechanism of urinary acidification. it
seems that Bob presented the results of the study at the Cor-
nell Research Society, where his statement that phosphate
reabsorption was not increased by acidosis was challengect by
one of his biochemist colleagues. This colleague stated that
inasmuch as it was well known that the urine is rendered acid
by the reabsorption of diso(lium phosphate, leaving behinct
the more acic! member of the buffer pair, the reabsorption
of phosphate must increase in acidosis when the excretion of
acid in the urine is increased. Bob thought for several months
about that conflict between theory anct data, ant] he con-
clucled that the phosphate reabsorption data were not wrong
but that the mechanism postulated by his biochemical col-
league probably was. In fact, Bob's mentor, Homer Smith,
the theoretician and philosopher of renal physiology, had
suggester! a different mechanism some ten years earlier:
namely, secretion of hydrogen ion by exchange for fixed cat-
ion. Neither hypothesis tract ever been tested. Bob decided it
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ROBERT FRANKLIN PITTS
329
was time to do so. The experiment that he clesignect to ex-
amine the alternatives was beautifully conceived to provide a
definitive answer. According to Bob's account, and the story
is confirmed by Robert Alexander, his collaborator and co-
author of the resulting paper, Bob wrote the entire paper-
minus only the data—before they carried out the first exper-
iment! Clearly, the results were all he could have hoped for,
showing that hydrogen ion secreted by the renal tubules was
indeed responsible for acidifying the urine. The paper, "The
Nature of the Renal Tubular Mechanism for Acidifying the
Urine" appeared in the American Journal of Physiology in 1945.
It was consiclerec] to be absolutely definitive and a landmark
of renal physiology. Bob's oIcler sister tells us that their
mother was fond of saying, "Plan your work, then work your
plan." Bob had learned the lesson well.
The paper on acidification of the urine established Robert
F. Pitts as the leacling investigator in renal physiology, but it
was only the beginning of a series of studies in which he
explorer! a number of relater! aspects of renal function: the
reabsorption of bicarbonate by the tubules, the factors gov-
erning the rate of excretion of titratable acid, anct the renal
tubular reabsorption of chIoricle. In acTdition, a paper with
William Lotspeich, "The Role of Amino Acids in the Renal
Tubular Secretion of Ammonia," introducecI a subject that in
later years was to be the focus of Bob Pitts's major line of
study.
In 1946 Pitts left Cornell to assume the chairmanship ot
the Department of Physiology at Syracuse University (the
school of medicine that subsequently became the State Uni-
versity of New York Upstate Mectical Center). The move was
accomplished without any apparent discontinuity in his re-
search. With a new group of younger associates, the work on
acidification anct bicarbonate reabsorption was extended to
the normal human, using the investigators as subjects. The
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BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
interests of Bob and his series of younger associates were not,
however, limited to acic! secretion by the tubules and related
phenomena; while he was at Syracuse, papers appeared deal-
ing with the effects of adrenal hormones on electrolyte reab-
sorption ant} excretion and on the effects of mercurial di-
uretics. The latter were his first venture into the study of
diuretics anc! their site anti mechanisms of action, an area of
investigation that was to be an important element of his work
over the next clecade.
In 1950 Pitts returned to Cornell as the chairman of the
Department of Physiology, a position he held until 1973,
shortly before his retirement from the university. Bob was a
conscientious chairman and a devotecI teacher. His lectures
were carefully prepared and models of clarity. In acldition,
he placed great importance on the teaching efforts of the
members of his department. He regularly attencled all the
lectures in the course in physiology throughout the period
of his chairmanship and participated enthusiastically in the
student laboratory exercises.
The stream of published reports of first-rate work was
never interrupted during the period of his chairmanship.
This was the case despite problems of illness, both of his wife
and of himself, that began in the midcIle fifties ancT were to
plague him through the remainder of his life. His wife was
stricken with progressive, incapacitating neurological disease
that caused her to be beciriciclen for many years, during
which Bob Elevated great personal effort to her care. AncT
Bob himself was the victim of at least three ailments that
might have lecI a less cledicated and cleterminec] man to give
up. In 195S, when one of us was his companion on a mission
to the MicIdIe East for the Unitarian Service Committee, his
pockets contained a medicine cabinet's assortment of pre-
scribec] medications. Nevertheless, through the years Bob not
only continued his extraordinarily productive activities but
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ROBERT FRANKLIN PITTS
331
also adheres! to his practice of doing a great clear of the lab-
oratory work himself. In fact, he not only diet most of the
laboratory work he also built much of his own apparatus,
inclucling an early flame photometer for the measurement
of sodium and potassium, ancT later an amino-acict analyzer.
Throughout his career he washer! his own glassware and in-
sistecl that others follow his rigid protocol for achieving ade-
quate chemical cleanliness. He later explained his participa-
tion in these activities by noting that "some of my best ideas
have come to me when I'm performing some routine analyt-
ical chore."
His work explorecl many areas of renal physiology. He
strayed from the kidney only slightly and for a brief period
when he, along with Roy Swan and Gerharct Giebisch, cle-
fined the extrarenal buffering of acid and base loacts. An
excellent series of papers clearing with the site and mecha-
nism of action of diuretics, particularly the mercurial ctiuret-
ics that were then the therapeutic mainstay, appeared seria-
tim from 1950 to 1962. His studies of the potentiation of the
diuretic effect by acidifying salts and of the relationship be-
tween structure and activity among the mercurial diuretics
led him to conclucle that the effect was probably on the trans-
port of chloride anti attributable to the intact molecule. This
contrasted with the inference of others that dissociation of
the mercury was necessary for the effect that was thought to
be proclucec] on the transport of the sodium ion. Studies
nearly twenty years later with isolated tubules have shown
that the Pitts interpretation was correct.
Except for a brief dalliance with the stop-flow method in
some of his studies of diuretics, Bob stuck pretty much to the
intact kidney, often using the intact dog. Even when his own
department became one of the leading centers of micro-
puncture work, Bob Pitts steered clear of that method. In
part, at least, he explainecl this decision in one of his "aphor-
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BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
isms on research" in the paper referred to earlier. "Pick an
area in which there is no, or at least little current research
activity," he advised. The reason: The investigator can cle-
velop his ideas without pressure to publish to establish prior-
ity. He followed his own precepts studiously, followed his own
course unpressured by the work of others, ant! never pub-
lished a trivial paper or a wrong one.
In the last dozen years of his work, Bob returned to the
area that he had opened up in his studies of acidification of
the urine anct explored that other element in the regulation
of acid-base balance, the excretion of ammonia. Almost
everything beyond the initial identification of glutamine by
Van Slyke and his associates that we know about the sources
of ammonia and the renal processes involved in its excretion
is based on the work of Bob Pitts.
In 1974 Bob Pitts accepted emeritus status at Cornell ancI
moved to the University of Florida in Gainesville where he
held the rank of Research Professor in Renal Medicine anc!
Physiology. Unfortunately, his health, for a long time far
from robust, deterioratect further, ant] he was able to add
little to the list of his magnificent accomplishments before his
death on June 6, 1977. It might be said that, in the last half-
century, if Homer Smith was the high priest of renal physi-
ology, then Bob Pitts was surely the builder of its temple.
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ROBERT FRANKLIN PITTS
335
1936
The clearance of hexamethenamine in the dog. Am. }. Physiol.,
115:706.
The comparison of urea with urea + ammonia clearances in aci-
dotic dogs. I. Clin. Invest., 15:571.
Excretion of creatine by the marine teleost, the red grouper. In:
Annual Report of the Tortugas Laboratory, 1935 - 36, p. 99. Wash-
ington, D.C.: Carnegie Institution of Washington.
1938
The excretion of phenol red by the chicken. J. Cell. Comp. Physiol.,
11:99.
With I. M. Koor. The excretion of urea by the chicken. J. Cell.
Comp. Physiol., 11: 117.
1939
The excretion of creatine by the dogfish, Squalus acanthius. 5. Cell.
Comp. Physiol., 19:151.
With H. W. Magoun and S. W. Ranson. Localization of the medul-
lary respiratory centers in the cat. Am. }. Physiol., 126:673.
With H. W. Magoun and S. W. Ranson. Interrelations of the res-
piratory centers in the cat. Am. J. Physiol., 126:689.
With H. W. Magoun and S. W. Ranson. The origin of respiratory
rhythmicity. Am. I. Physiol., 127:654.
1940
The respiratory center and its descending pathways. i. Comp. Neu-
rol.,72:605.
1941
With M. G. Larrabee and D. W. Bronk. An analysis of hypotha-
lamic cardiovascular control. Am. I. Physiol., 134:359.
1942
With D. W. Bronk. Excitability cycle of the hypothalamus-sympa-
thetic neurone system. Am. J. Physiol., 135:504.
The function of components of the respiratory complex. l. Neu-
rophysiol., 5:403.
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336
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
1943
A renal reabsorptive mechanism in the dog common to glycine and
creatine. Am. I. Physiol., 140: 156.
The basis for repetitive activity in phrenic motorneurons. I. Neu-
rophysiol., 6:439.
1944
A comparison of the renal reabsorptive processes for several amino
acids. Am. I. Physiol., 140:535.
The effects of infusing glycin and of varying the dietary protein
intake on renal hemodynamics in the dog. Am. J. Physiol.,
142:355.
With R. S. Alexander. The renal reabsorptive mechanism for in-
organic phosphate in normal and acidotic dogs. Am. I. Physiol.,
142:648.
1945
With R. S. Alexander. The nature of the renal tubular mechanism
for acidifying the urine. Am. {. Physiol., 144:239.
The renal regulation of acid-base balance with special reference to
the mechanism for acidifying the urine. Science, 102:49.
1946
Organization of the neural mechanisms responsible for rhythmic
respiration, pp. 896-912; Regulation of respiration, pp. 913-
32. In: Howell's Textbook of Physiology, ed. I. F. Fulton.
Kidney. Annul Rev. Physiol., 8:199.
Organization of the respiratory center. Physiol. Rev., 26:609.
With W. D. Lotspeich. Bicarbonate and the renal regulation of acid-
base balance. Am. J. Physiol., 147: 138.
With W. D. Lotspeich. Factors governing the rate of excretion of
titratable acid in the dog. Am. I. Physiol., 147:481.
1947
With W. D. Lotspeich and R. C. Swan. The renal tubular reabsorp-
tion of chloride. Am. J. Physiol., 148:445.
With W. D. Lotspeich. Use of thiosulfate clearance as a measure of
glomerular filtration rate in acidotic dogs. Proc. Soc. Exp. Biol.
Med., 64:224.
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ROBERT FRANKLIN PITTS
337
With W. D. Lotspeich. The role of amino acids in the renal tubular
secretion of ammonia. I. Biol. Chem., 168 :611.
With J. L. Ayer and W. A. Schiess. Independence of phosphate
reabsorption and glomerular filtration in the dog. Am. I. Phys-
iol., 151:168.
1948
With W. D. Lotspeich, W. A. Schiess, and I. L. Ayer. The renal
regulation of acid-base balance in man. I. The nature of the
mechanism for acidifying the urine. I. Clin. Invest., 27:48.
With W. D. Lotspeich, W. A. Schiess, and i. L. Ayer. The renal
regulation of acid-base balance in man. II. Factors affecting the
excretion of titratable acid by the normal human subject. I. Clin.
Invest., 27:57.
Renal excretion of acid. Fed. Proc. Fed. Am. Soc. Exp. Biol.,7:418.
With I. iahan. Effect of parathyroid on renal tubular reabsorption
of phosphate and calcium. Am. J. Physiol., 155:42.
1949
With I. L. Ayer and W. A. Schiess. The renal regulation of acid-
base balance in man. III. The reabsorption and excretion of
bicarbonate. i. Clin. Invest., 28:35.
With O. W. Sartorius and I. C. Roemmelt. The renal regulation of
acid-base balance in man. IV. The nature of the renal compen-
sations in ammonium chloride acidosis. I. Clin. Invest., 28:423.
With I. C. Roemmelt and O. W. Sartorius. Excretion and reabsorp-
tion of sodium and water in the adrenalectomized dog. Am. I.
Physiol., 159: 124.
1950
With i. i. Duggan. Studies on diuretics. I. The site of action of
mercurial diuretics. I. Clin. Invest., 29:365.
With J. J. Duggan. Studies on diuretics. II. The relationship be-
tween glomerular filtration rate, proximal tubular absorption
of sodium and diuretic efficacy of mercurials. I. Clin. Invest.,
29:372.
With O. W. Sartorius. Mechanism of action and therapeutic use of
diuretics. I. Pharmacol. Exp. Ther., 98:161.
Acid-base regulation by the kidneys. Am. l. Med., 9:356.
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BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
With M. i. Browne and M. W. Pitts. Alkaline phosphatase activity
in kidneys of glomerular and aglomerular marine teleosts. Biol.
Bull., 99:152.
1951
With W. S. Wiggins, C. H. Manry, and R. H. Lyons. The effect of
salt loading and salt depletion on renal function and electrolyte
excretion in man. Circulation, 3:275.
With D. D. Thompson and M. I. Barrett. Significance of glomer-
ular perfusion in relation to variability of filtration rate. Am. I.
Physiol., 167:546.
Effect of adrenal cortical hormones on renal function. In: Adrenal
Cortex, Transactions of the Third Conference, ed. E. D. Ralli, p. 703.
New York: Josiah Macy, ir., Foundation.
With S. Kupfer and D. D. Thompson. The isolated kidney and its
response to diuretic agents. Am. i. Physiol., 167:703.
1952
With K. E. Roberts. The influence of cortisone on renal function
and electrolyte excretion in the adrenalectomized dog. Endo-
crinology, 50-51.
With D. R. Axelrod. Effects of hypoxia on renal tubular function.
J. Appl. Physiol., 4:593.
With D. D. Thompson. Effects of alterations of renal arterial pres-
sure on sodium and water excretion. Am. l. Physiol., 168:490.
With D. R. Axelrod. The relationship of plasma pH and anion
pattern to mercurial diuresis. J. Clin. Invest., 31:171.
With D. R. Axelrod. Anoxia as a factor in resistance to mercurial
diuretics. Am. J. Physiol., 169:350.
Modern concepts of acid-base regulation. Arch. Int. Med., 89:864.
With J. N. Capps, W. S. Wiggins, and D. R. Axelrod. The effect of
mercurial diuretics on the excretion of water. Circulation, 6:82.
With O. W. Sartorius and D. Calhoon. The capacity of the adre-
nalectomized rat to secrete hydrogen and ammonium ions. En-
docrinology, 51:444.
1953
With K. E. Roberts and M. G. Magida. Relationship between po-
tassium and bicarbonate in blood and urine. Am. I. Physiol.,
172:47.
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ROBERT FRANKLIN PITTS
339
With O. W. Sartorius and D. Calhoon. Studies on the interrelation-
ships of the adrenal cortex and renal ammonia excretion by the
rat. Endocrinology, 53:256.
With K. E. Roberts. The effects of cortisone and desoxycorticoster-
one on the renal tubular reabsorption of phosphate and the
excretion of titratable acid and potassium in dogs. Endocrinol-
ogy, 52:324.
Mechanisms for stabilizing the alkaline reserves of the body.
Harvey Lect. Ser. 48.
1954
With P. l. Dorman and W. I. Sullivan. The renal response to acute
respiratory acidosis. I Clin. Invest., 33: 82.
With G. Giebisch and H. D. Lauson. Renal excretion and volume
of distribution of various dextrans. Am. I Physiol., 178: 168.
With R. C. Swan and H. Madisso. Measurement of extracellular
fluid volume in nephrectomized dogs. I. Clin. Invest., 33:1147.
With P. I. Dorman and W. }. Sullivan. Factors determining carbon
dioxide tension in urine. Am. l. Physiol., 179:181.
With G. Giebisch and L. Berger. The extrarenal response to acute
acid-base disturbances of respiratory origin. J. Clin. Invest.,
34:231.
With R. C. Swan. Neutralization of infused acid by nephrectomized
dogs. J. Clin. Invest., 34:205.
Uber active transport Mechanisem in den Tubuli der Niere. Klin.
Wochenschr., 33:365.
With G. R. Fuller and M. B. MacLeod. The influence of the ad-
ministration of potassium salts on the renal tubular reabsorp-
tion of bicarbonate. Am. J. Physiol., 182: 111.
With R. C. Swan, D. R. Axelrod, and M. Seip. Distribution of so-
dium bicarbonate infused into nephrectomized dogs. J. Clin.
Invest., 34:1795.
With G. Giebisch and M. B. MacLeod. The effects of adrenal ste-
roids on renal tubular reabsorption of bicarbonate. Am. I. Phys-
iol., 183:377.
1956
With R. R. M. Borghgraef. The distribution of chlormerodrin
(Neohydrin) in tissues of the rat and dog. J. Clin. Invest.,35:31.
With R. L. Greif, S. J. Sullivan, and G. S. Jacobs. Distribution of
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BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
radiomercury administered as labeled chlormerodrin (Neohy-
drin) in the kidneys of rats and dogs. J. Clin. Invest., 35:38.
With B. K. Ochwadt. Effects of intravenous infusion of carbonic
anhydrase on carbon dioxide tension of alkaline urine. Am. I.
Physiol., 1 85:426.
With R. R. M. Borghgraef and R. H. Kessler. Plasma regression,
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chlormerodrin to the dog. I. Clin. Invest. 35: 1055.
With B. K. Ochwadt. Disparity between the phenol red and the
diodrast clearances in the dog. Am. i. Physiol., 187:318.
1957
With P. Poulos. An indirect flame photometric method for calcium
in plasma and urine. i. Lab. Clin. Med., 49:300.
With R. H. Kessler and R. Lozano. Studies on structure diuretic
activity relationships of organic compounds of mercury. I. Clin.
Invest., 36:656.
With D. D. Thompson, F. Kavaler, and R. Lozano. An evaluation
of the cell separation hypothesis of autoregulation of renal
blood flow and filtration rate. I. Blood flow, filtration rate and
PAH extraction as functions of arterial pressure in normal and
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With R. H. Kessler and O. P. A. Heidenreich. An evaluation of the
cell separation hypothesis of autoregulation of renal blood flow
and filtration rate. II. Glucose titrations in normal and anemic
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1958
Some reflections on mechanisms of action of diuretics. Am. J. Med.,
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With F. Kruck, R. Lozano, D. W. Taylor, O. P. A. Heidenreich, and
R. H. Kessler. Studies on the mechanism of action of chloro-
thiazide. J. Pharmacol. Exp. Ther., 123:89.
With R. S. Gurd, R. H. Kessler, and K. Hierholzer. Localization of
acidification of urine, potassium and ammonia secretion and
phosphate reabsorption in the nephron of the dog. Am. I. Phys-
iol., 194:125.
With R. H. Kessler, K. Hierholzer, and R. S. Gurd. Localization of
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ROBERT FRANKLIN PITTS
341
the diuretic action of chlormerodrin in the nephron of the dog.
Am. I. Physiol., 194:540.
1959
With R. H. Kessler, K. Hierholzer, and R. S. Gurd. Localization of
action of chlorothiazide in the nephron of the dog. Am. J. Phys-
iol., 196:1346.
The Physiological Basis of Diuretic Therapy. Springfield, Ill.: Charles
C Thomas.
1960
With K. Hierholzer, R. Cado, R. Gurd, and R. H. Kessler. Stop flow
analysis of renal absorption and excretion of sulfate in the dog.
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With G. Giebisch and E. E. Windhager. Mechanism of urinary
acidification. In: Biology of Pyelonephratis, p. 277. Boston:
Little, Brown & Co.
The teacher and the ferment in education. (Past president's ad-
dress to the American Physiological Society.) Physiologist, 3:20.
1961
With I. L. Brown and A. H. E. Samiy. Localization of amino-
nitrogen reabsorption in the nephron of the dog. Am. J. Phys-
iol., 200:370.
With J. R. Cade, B. Shalhoub, and M. Canessa-Fischer. The effect
of strophanthidin on the renal tubules of the dog. Am. I. Phys-
iol., 200:373.
A comparison of the modes of action of certain diuretic agents.
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With W. A. Webber and l. L. Brown. Interactions of amino acids
in renal tubular transport. Am. I. Physiol., 200:380.
1962
With S. Balagura. The excretion of ammonia injected into the
renal artery. Am. J. Physiol., 203: 11.
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342
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
1963
With R. i. Shalhoub, W. Webber, S. Glabman, M. Ganessa-Fischer,
I Klein, and I. deHaas. Extraction of amino acids from and
their addition to renal blood plasma. Am. I. Physiol., 204:181.
With I. deHaas and I. Klein. Relation of renal amino and amide
extraction to ammonia production. Am. I. Physiol., 204:187.
With M. Canessa-Fischer, R. I. Shalhoub, S. Glabman, and I.
deHaas. The effects of infusions of ammonia, amides and
amino acids on the excretion of ammonia. Am. l. Physiol.,
204:192.
Physiology of the Kidney and Body Fluids. Chicago: Yearbook Publish-
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1964
With G. Denis and H. Preuss. The pNH3 of renal tubular cells. I.
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With S. Balagura. Renal handling of cx-ketoglutarate by the dog.
Am. I. Physiol., 207:483.
Renal production and excretion of ammonia. Am. i. Med., 36:720.
1965
With L. A. Pilkington and J. deHaas. Ni5 tracer studies on the
origin of urinary ammonia in the acidotic dog with notes on the
enzymatic synthesis of labeled glutamic acid and glutamine. {.
Clin. Invest., 44:731.
With L. A. Pilkington and J. Welch. Relationship of pNH3 of tu-
bular cells to renal production of ammonia. Am. l. Physiol.,
208:1 100.
With L. A. Pilkington, R. Binder, and J. deHaas. Intrarenal distri-
bution of blood flow. Am. J. Physiol., 208: 1 107.
With G. Fulgraff. A study of the kinetics of ammonia production
and excretion in the acidotic dog. Am. J. Physiol., 209:1206.
1966
With L. A. Pilkington. The relation between plasma concentrations
of glutamine and glycine and utilization of their nitrogens as
sources of urinary ammonia. I. Clin. Invest., 45:86.
The renal metabolism of ammonia. Physiologist, 9:97;
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ROBERT FRANKLIN PITTS
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343
With W. I. Stone. Renal metabolism of alanine. I. Clin. Invest.,
46:530.
With W. l. Stone. Pathways of ammonia metabolism in the intact
functioning kidney of the dog. I. Clin. Invest., 46: 1141.
With W. i. Stone and S. Balagura. Diffusion equilibrium for am
mania in the kidney of the acidotic dog. I. Clin. Invest.
46:1603.
1969
With M. L. Lyon. Species differences in renal glutamine synthesis
in viva. Am. I. Physiol., 216: 117.
Renal excretion of ammonia. In: Progress in Nephrology, ed. G.
Peters and F. Roch-Ramel, p. 75. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.
1970
With A. C. Damian. Rates of glutaminase I and glutamine synthe-
tase reactions in rat kidney in viva. Am. I. Physiol., 218: 1249.
With A. C. Damian and M. B. MacLeod. Synthesis of serine by rat
kidney in vivo and in vitro. Am. I. Physiol., 219:504.
Production and excretion of ammonia in relation to acid-base reg-
ulation. In: Handbook of Physiology, Renal Physiology, p. 455.
Washington, D.C.: American Physiological Society.
With L. A. Pilkington and T. K. Young. Properties of renal lumen
and antiluminal transport of plasma glutamine. Nephron,
17:51.
1971
The role of ammonia production and excretion in regulation of
acid-base balance. N. Engl. l. Med., 284:32.
Metabolism of amino acids by the perfused rat kidney. Am. J. Phys-
iol., 220:862.
Some aphorisms on research and writing. Yale I. Biol. Med.,
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1972
With M. B. MacLeod. Synthesis of serine by the dog kidney in viva.
Am. I. Physiol., 222:394.
With L. A. Pilkington, M. B. MacLeod, and E. Leal-Pinto. Metab-
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344 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
olism of glutamine by the intact functioning kidney of the dog.
Studies in metabolic acidosis and alkalosis. J. Clin. Invest.,
5 1:557.
Control of ammonia production and excretion. Kidney Int., 1:297.
1973
With E. Leal-Pinto, H. C. Park, V. F. King, and M. B. MacLeod.
The metabolism of lactate by the intact functioning kidney of
the dog. Am. I. Physiol., 224:1463.
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Representative terms from entire chapter:
renal tubular
