[Diminished increase in body length in rats as an indicator of toxic injuries]

In four subchronic and three chronic toxicity studies in rats, in which the application of pharmacologically active substances led to a reduction in body weight development, the lengths of the animals were also measured. It could be shown that a lower body weight gain was always accompanied by a reduction in body length increase. With increasing doses or higher toxicity the within-group variations of individual values were smaller and the correlation between body weight and length of the rats was generally greater.