SERUM MUCOPROTEIN LEVELS AFTER STRESS IN YOUNG AND OLD RATS

Following NCD trauma or hydrocortisone administration the level of serum mucoproteins rises. This rise is greater in young than in old rats and the same holds for the application of hydrocortisone. Application of radioactive sulphate to rats before and after stress showed that radioactivity in serum mucoproteins rose only in the time radioactive sulphate can be used directly for new serum mucoprotein formation. Sulphate incorporated into the tissues was not found in serum mucoproteins after stress. It is concluded that greater formation of serum mucoproteins in the liver, de novo, is responsible for serum mucoprotein rise after trauma in the Noble-Collip drum. Smaller reaction in old rats must be caused by smaller protein synthesis.