title: activity and catch-up growth in hypothyroid rats.
abstract: Hypothyroidism was induced in 38-day old male rats by feeding the animals a chow diet supplemented with propylthiouracil (PTU, 0.1% by weight) for 43 days. Wheel activity of PTU animals was not significantly different from that of euthyroid, ad lib feeding controls it was significantly lower when compared to pairfed controls. Body weight was significantly lower than that of euthyroid ad lib controls. After 75 days of PTU discontinuation catch-up growth of PTU animals was not complete: body weight and tibia length were significantly lower in the PTU condition in comparison to euthyroid, ad lib feeding condition. However, no difference existed between the catch-up growth of PTU and pairfed animals. It was suggested that growth arrest observed in early hypothyroidism may be partly due to factors nonspecific to thyroxine absence, such as hypophagia.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001835:Body Weight; D001846:Bone Development; D007037:Hypothyroidism / Q000139:chemically induced / Q000378:metabolism*; D008297:Male; D009043:Motor Activity; D011441:Propylthiouracil; D051381:Rats
chemical_list: D011441:Propylthiouracil