Effects of Diet and Fasting on Plasma Phosphatase

Abstract

Summary and Conclusions

Rats maintained for over a month on the Sherman diet showed a lower plasma phosphatase than those maintained on a meat diet. The plasma of fasted rats and guinea pigs had a much lower phosphatase content than the plasma of fed controls.

The variations of plasma phosphatase could not in these cases be attributed to any phenomena associated with the physical and chemical processes taking place in bone. Indeed, the assumption that plasma phosphatase changes are caused only by physical or chemical changes in the bone would lead to expect results contrary to those we actually obtained, because starvation for 3 to 6 days causes considerable non-specific bone resorption. 7 It seemed more plausible that the physical and chemical processes associated with nutrition were closely linked with these changes in plasma phosphatase. It is possible, however, that the cessation of new bone formation in young animals (also observed during starvation) contributes to the lowering of plasma phosphatase. It must be noted in this connection that young, growing animals were used, and that our conclusions do not necessarily apply to adults.