Cerebral Energy Requirement of Neonatal Rats

¹ From the Department of Physiology, School of Medicine, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas

The survival times of neonatal rats in nitrogen with and without injected iodoacetic acid and at diverse ages and temperatures are presented. It is shown that the survival time in nitrogen is greatly shortened if iodoacetic acid has been injected. Also, in iodoacetic acid treated rats the survival time is decreased with the daily development of the animal; the survival time is lengthened by a decrease in body temperature; the effect of temperature decreases with the daily development of the animal; the logarithm of the survival time has a linear relationship with the body temperature. It is concluded that these survival times are a measure of the energy requirement of the respiratory centers and the influence of age and temperature upon the requirement. A calculation is made which indicates that a deficiency of one micromole of energy-rich phosphate per gram of tissue in the respiratory centers results in the cessation of respiratory movements.