The influence of body core temperature and peripheral temperatures on oxygen consumption in the pig

1. The rate of oxygen consumption was measured in young pigs exposed to different ambient temperatures and the effect on metabolic rate of changing the temperature of thermodes implanted in the hypothalamus and over the spinal cord was determined. In some experiments the temperature of the skin over the trunk was changed by means of a water-perfused coat.2. Cooling the hypothalamus or the spinal cord in a warm ambient did not change the rate of oxygen consumption. At a thermoneutral ambient temperature, cooling either thermode increased oxygen consumption. In a cold environment, cooling either thermode increased the rate of oxygen consumption more than at a thermoneutral temperature. The increase in the rate of oxygen consumption was greatest during cooling of the spinal cord and it appeared that the pigs also shivered more violently. Heating either thermode tended to decrease oxygen consumption in a cold environment.3. In pigs with thermodes both in the hypothalamus and over the spinal cord, cooling both thermodes was accompanied by a greater increase in oxygen consumption than cooling either thermode alone. The increase in oxygen consumption on cooling one thermode could be reduced by heating the other.4. The skin temperature (fixed by the water perfused coat, or the ambient temperature) at which the rate of oxygen consumption increased, was lowered during heating of the thermodes, but the rate of increase in oxygen consumption appeared not to change as a function of falling skin or ambient temperature.