Abstract
Recently we (1) have reported the withstanding action of subnarcotic doses of ethylurethane (U) to severe acute anoxia in rats without the concomitance of the suppression of respiratory movements. In the course of studies on mechanism of the U-action, it was observed that the administration of a subnarcotic dose of U produced a rise in body temperature and in gas metabolism of rats.
Up to about 1930, many of reports had appeared in the literature on the effects of large dose of U on metabolisms in various tissues or cells, but some few on the gas metabolism in mammals, almost all of which were undertaken to elucidate narcotic phenomena. As the latters, it was reported that there was a decrease in the O2-consumption in narcotized rats with U (2, 3) and a similar effect in the O2-uptake and CO2-output in like urethanized rabbits (3, 4). On the contrary, Aub et al. (5, 6) had reported that in spite of a reduction of body temperature, there was an increased gas metabolism in the cats under U anaesthesia being converted into a prompt and progressive fall of the metabolism after removal of adrenal glands, probably owing to the increased secretion of adrenin. In the connection with this problem, it was also reported that U-administration brought about an increased liberation of epinephrine from adrenal glands in cats and dogs (7, 8). On the one hand, it had been evidenced that the O2-comsumption in the fasting rat without narcotica was increased approximately 30% by the injection of epinephrine (9).
In view of the literatures and our observations above mentioned, the present study was initiated to determine effects of the narcotic and subnarcotic dose of U on metabolism of rats and to determine whether U-effects are related to adrenal function or not.
