Carbohydrate metabolism in normal and altitude-exposed mice following arsenite poisoning

¹ Department of Biology, Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania

The metabolic basis for the greater susceptibility of high altitude-exposed mice to arsenite poisoning was investigated. There was, initially, in altitude-exposed mice less muscle glycogen and blood sugar and these became depleted, along with liver glycogen and total body carbohydrate, more rapidly following intraperitoneal injections of arsenite than in control mice. At a dosage level when altitude-exposed mice were dying in convulsions, normal mice survived with what appeared to be enough carbohydrate to protect them. Livers of altitude-exposed mice retained a significantly larger percentage of isotopically labeled arsenite 1 and 3 hours postintraperitoneal injection than livers of normal mice. The differential effect of arsenite was not accompanied by an unequal accumulation of metabolic intermediates in livers nor by a difference in rate of loss of liver glycogen under in vitro conditions. Impaired synthesis may be more significant than increased loss in explaining these results.