Effects of chronic endotoxaemia on oxygen consumption at different ambient temperatures in the unanaesthetised rat

Oxygen consumption has been measured at different ambient temperatures at intervals during the intravenous infusion of endotoxin (1 mg/kg.day-1) from a subcutaneously implanted osmotic minipump in unanaesthetised rats. On day 1 of the infusion oxygen consumption was elevated at ambient temperatures of 10, 28, and 31 degrees C but not at 20 degrees C, compared with pair-fed saline-infused controls. There was a significant negative correlation between oxygen consumption on days 1 and 3 and environmental temperature (10, 20, and 28 degrees C) in both groups, but the regression line describing the relation in endotoxin-infused rats was displaced above that for the saline-infused control without a change in slope. The "minimal observed" oxygen consumption, which is taken as an estimate of basal metabolic rate, was elevated by the infusion of endotoxin. The endotoxin-induced increase in "minimal observed" oxygen consumption was removed by indomethacin (5 mg/kg.sc) on day 1 of the infusion but was ineffective on days 3 and 7.