Abstract
Summary
Adult male rats were maintained on a low protein diet and exposed to 3 environmental temperatures, 4°C, 23 °C, and 35 °C, for 50 days. Measurements of total urinary nitrogen as well as food intake and changes in body weight were made every third day between the tenth and fiftieth day of exposure. Food intake, total urinary nitrogen, and the various urinary fractions, urea, allantoin, and creatine, were found to be inversely proportional to the exposure temperature. Excretion of uric acid, ammonia and amino acids, and creatinine bore no apparent relation to external temperature. The changes in urea, allantoin, and creatine excretion reported here are proportional to the metabolic stresses imposed by high and low temperatures.
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