Effect of pure oxygen at reduced pressures on metabolic changes in mice

Abstract

The gravimetric "equivalence" between protein catabolized and carbohydrate synthesized in response to cortisone was determined in mice exposed for periods of 3 weeks to air at simulated 14,000-ft or 20,000-ft altitude or to pure oxygen at simulated 30,000-ft or 34,000-ft altitude. For control mice and those exposed to pure oxygen at 30,000 ft and 34,000 ft the equivalence was, respectively, 92%, 90%, and 98%. Animals on air at 14,000 ft and at 20,000 ft had, respectively, 46% and 37% equivalence. In all mice, protein catabolism was the same, statistically, but carbohydrate synthesis varied. Mice exposed to air at 14,000 ft or 20,000 ft show 35% and 46% survival after a dose of endotoxin survived by 84% of control animals and 86% of those kept for 3 weeks on pure oxygen at simulated 34,000 ft. Other effects of low barometric pressure are described.