Effects of adrenocorticotropin on temperature- and pressure-dependent metabolic functions

¹ Department of Physiology-Biophysics, School of Aviation Medicine (AU), Brooks Air Force Base, and Psychiatric and Psychosomatic Research Laboratory, Veterans Administration Hospital and Baylor University College of Medicine, Houston, Texas

Effects of adrenocorticotropin (ACTH) in low dosage on metabolic aspects were determined in adult male rats acclimated to cold, neutral or hot environments or to low barometric pressure. Urinary determinations provided the means for indirectly assessing metabolic states. The metabolic aspects studied were Na, K, Ca, P, Mg, urea, uric acid, creatinine, creatine, taurine, ß-alanine, glycine, -alanine, valine, methionine, serine, threonine, tyrosine, glutamic acid, aspartic acid, lysine, arginine, histidine, glucose, glucuronic acid, phenolic acids and coproporphyrin. Additionally, fecal determinations were made for coproporphyrin, protoporphyrin and deuteroporphyrin. The interplay between endocrine and environmental factors and their importance to metabolic states during short-term and long-term exposures to environmental extremes thus received some clarification. With the low dosage employed, ACTH had a ‘restraining’ influence on nonspecific metabolic responses.