Effect of Starvation on Phagocytosis in vivo.

Abstract

Rats well fed for 4 weeks were deprived of food for 36 hrs., and phagocytosis by leucocytes, obtained by injecting a suspension of Staphylococcus albus into the peritoneum, was compared with the phagocyte activity of leucocytes from continually well fed rats. The phagocyte activity was determined by counting the number of bacteria engulfed per phagocyte per unit of time (Wright) and by determining the percentage of leucocytes showing phagocytosis (Hamburger). The starved rats produced twice the percentage of phagocytic leucocytes which engulfed 3 times more bacteria than the phagocytes of the fed animals.