PLASMA CORTICOSTERONE IN THE RAT IN RELATION TO TRAUMA AND ENVIRONMENTAL TEMPERATURE

Abstract

Male Wistar rats show a marked rise in plasma corticosterone 1 hr after fracture of a femur under halothane‐oxygen anaesthesia when they are housed at 200° C. or at 30° C. Anaesthesia alone produces a less marked response. No elevation is seen 6 hr after fracture or anaesthesia alone at 200° C. The animals were handled frequently and blood taken from unhandled animals gave results for plasma corticosterone about three times higher than handled controls. Controls, and animals only anaesthetized, had lower plasma corticosterone levels at 30° C. than at 200° C.; but there was no such difference between the animals undergoing fracture at 200° C. and those at 300° C. © 1969 The Physiological Society