Carbohydrate and lipid metabolism in rats after hypokinesia.

Hypokinesia (diminished muscular activity) elicits several substantial alterations in carbohydrate and lipid metabolism of animals and man. The aim of this study was to examine certain parameters of carbohydrate and lipid metabolism in blood and tissues of 118 rats weighing 180-220 g, during a 90 days' exposure to hypokinesia (HK) and a 90-days' readaptation period (RP), that is, after the termination of HK. All of the rats were divided into experimental and control groups. The experimental group of rats were kept in small individual cages made of plexiglass and the control group of rats was placed under ordinary vivarium conditions. The rats were decapitated on the 90th day of HK and on the 15th, 30th, 60th and 90th days of the RP. Such indices were measured as glycogen (G), total lipid (TL), cholesterol (CH) and triglycerides (TG) in hepatic tissues and skeletal muscles, and glucose-6-phosphate-dehydrogenase (G-6-PDH) activity in the liver and fatty tissues. There were also assayed: blood serum, sugar, total cholesterol, alpha-cholesterol (alpha-CH), beta-cholesterol (beta-CH) lipoproteins, acetone bodies (AB) and free fatty acids (FFA). On the 90th day of HK the content of CH, FFA and AB increased, the value of sugar and TG decreased in blood, the amount of G decreased and the level of CH increased in the liver and skeletal muscles. On the 15th day of RP most of the parameters under study returned to normal. However, G-6-PDH in the liver and adipose tissue were elevated and remained higher till the 60th day of the RP.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)