[Use of tritium oxide for the study of metabolism during development of experimental arteriosclerosis]

Theoretical grounds are presented for some methods (administration of isotope and time of sacrifying the animal, estimation of radioactivity in ther material examined, and mathematical processing of the data obtained) with which radioactive water is used as a universal precursor for the study of the integral rates of metabolism in various organs and biochemical components of the body. An analysis of the dynamics of tritium inclusion into the water of the blood and urine of the control animals and of those with experimentally induced atherosclerosis permitted to establish that the development of hypercholesterinemia is accompanied by a decrase (by 26%) of the rate of autorenuewal of the water phase of the macroorganism, one of its causes consisting in an enhanced hydrophility of the tissues in cases of this pathology. A monthly periodicity was noted in the changes of the tritium concentration in the body waters of rabbits, as well as its correlation with the periodical changes in the concentration of serum cholesterol during the development of experimental atherosclerosis. It is suggested that the water and cholesterol metabolism have a joint centralized regulation in the body which essence consists in maintaining the rhythm of each separate kind of metabolism for its synchronization with the other kinds of metabolism in unfavourable outer and inner situations for the macroorganism.