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The Effect of Roughage Upon Growth

1929; SAGE Publishing; Volume: 27; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.3181/00379727-27-4687

1535-3702

C. M. McCay,

Adipose Tissue and Metabolism

The diets shown in Chart 1 were designed for the purpose of determining the influence of large quantities of “roughage” upon the rate of growth. Ration 1 contains 10% cellulose while numbers 2 and 3 contain 20%. Diet 4 contains 20% of agar-agar. Nos. 1 and 2 contain moderate amounts of fat while numbers 3 and 4 have 45% of their total weight in the form of lard and cod liver oil. All rations were designed to contain adequate amounts of protein, fats, carbohydrates, mineral matter and vitamin supplements. The levels for protein and mineral matter were increased for rations 3 and 4 in accordance with the procedure of Smith and Carey. The salt mixture employed was that of Osborne and Mendel. Cellophane was selected as a source of cellulose since it represents a very pure form. In addition to the mixed diet all animals were fed separately a daily allowance of 200 mg. of vitavose and 3 drops of cod liver oil. Ten male rats were reared from the time of weaning upon rations 1 and 2. These showed a marked decreased rate of growth when compared with a control group whose growth rate is shown by curve C while representative rates for the other groups are shown by typical curves properly numbered. The control ration was identical with number 1 except that the cellulose was replaced by the same per cent of sucrose. Curves S are those for males and females reared upon our stock ration. These are described elsewhere by Maynard. Since we obtained subnormal growth with rations 1 and 2 containing 10 and 20% cellulose we felt that this might be due to the inability of the rat to consume sufficient calories.