Body energy status and the metabolic response to acute
inflammation.
Lennie, Terry A., Donna O. McCarthy, and Richard E. Keesey.
School of Nursing, University of Wisconsin, Madison WI 53706,
Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin, Madison WI
53792
APStracts 2:0154R, 1995.
An animal model of acute inflammation was used to examine how body
energy status influences the syndrome of anorexia, negative nitrogen
balance, and body weight loss typically seen in response to injury.
Specifically, the metabolic response to acute inflammation was
studied in rats of normal, elevated, or reduced body weights. Rats
induced to overeat and gain weight prior to inflammation displayed
protracted anorexia, greater subsequent weight loss, higher metabolic
rates, and greater negative energy balance than rats of normal
weight. Conversely, rats with reduced body weights displayed elevated
food intakes, body weight gain, attenuated nitrogen loss, and normal
rates of energy expenditure. Prior weight reduction did not affect
postinflammation fever, or levels of fibrinogen, iron, and
interleukin-6-like activity, suggesting that the ability to mount an
acute phase response was not impaired in weight-reduced rats. These
results suggest that the usual postinflammation adjustments in body
energy flux and body nitrogen are regulated components of a metabolic
response to acute inflammation which renders normally-protected
sources of endogenous energy and substrate available for repair and
recovery.
Received 15 November 1994; accepted in final form 30 May 1995.
APS Manuscript Number R658-4.
Article publication pending Am. J. Physiol. (Regulatory Integrative
Comp. Physiology).
ISSN 1080-4757 Copyright 1995 The American Physiological Society.
Published in APStracts on 6 July 1995.