A University research fellow is working with ACTH, the miracle pituitary hormone used to treat arthritis. Martin G. Ettlinger research fellow in Chemistry, said yesterday that his work may be a first step in producing ACTH at a far lower cost than its present $100-a-gram price.

Ettlinger is trying to isolate the ACTH hormone in its pure form. "If this research is successful," he said, "it may lead to the production of a synthetic ACTH which will be available to many more persons than the present product which is extracted from the pituitary glands of hogs."

Ettlinger is working under a grant from the American Cyanamid Company with Dr. Edwin B. Astwood, professor of Research Medicine at Tufts.