Changes in the proportion of serum proteins induced by protein depletion in adapted and nonadapted rats
Sova, O.; Toporková, M.
Physiologia Bohemoslovaca 25(6): 561-567
1976
ISSN/ISBN: 0369-9463 PMID: 139631 Document Number: 99674
Of 96 Wistar rats 10 months old weighing 250 to 300 g, 48 were adapted to protein deprivation during 18 weeks when they had alternate periods of depletion and repletion. Then all were given a protein-free diet for up to 8 weeks; 6 rats from each group were examined at weekly intervals. The fall in serum albumin when the protein-free diet was given was less in rats which had been adapted to deprivation than in rats not so adapted. In adapted rats the proportion of postalbumins did not change, but in unadapted rats their values were sometimes quadrupled. Responses of alpha - and gamma -globulins also differed between the groups. The changes in protein metabolism in adapted rats followed a different course from those in unadapted rats. After 4 weeks of protein-free diet almost every curve for dynamics of the proportions of serum protein fractions in adapted rats showed a break in character from the original trend. The breaks could mean that the regulation centre, acting on information from the previous alternation of depletion and repletion, anticipated that 4 weeks of depletion would be followed by a repletion period.