Assessment of lipid peroxidation in rats of different body weight by determining expired ethane

Expired ethane is regarded as an indicator of reactive oxygen species induced lipid peroxidation. We investigated whether Wistar rats of different body weights (BW: 78 +/- 6, 121 +/- 12 and 347 +/- 30 g) and hence different metabolic rates per unit weight, expire different amounts of ethane. We found that expired ethane (pmol/100 g BW/min) decreases with increasing BW (8.6 +/- 1.8, 6.3 +/- 1.5 and 2.8 +/- 0.6, respectively). These values aas well as a recently published average value of 1.0 pmol ethane/100 g BW/min for healthy humans (average BW: 78 kg) indicate a positive relationship between lipid peroxidation and metabolic rate.