Abstract
Summary
Starvation results in a marked loss of body weight in rats, e.g., a 30% loss in 4 days after which the animals begin to die. By the sixth day only 5 of the 20 were still living. Despite these drastic effects on the rat as a whole, cardiac function, as determined by developed tension of isolated atria in glucose-containing medium, was as good or better than that from fed rats. When placed in substrate-free medium, atria from fed rats showed a marked decline in developed tension, e.g., a 44% decline in 40 min. In contrast, the developed tension of atria from rats starved 1 to 6 days showed a smaller rate of decline with the least decline seen in atria from rats starved for 2 days. These results suggest (a) that prolonged starvation has no deleterious effect on cardiac function and (b) starvation increases the storage of readily metabolizable substrate useful for the functional activity of the atria.
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