Effect of Excessive Dietary Sodium Chloride upon Liver and Muscle Glycogen in the Rat

Abstract

Chaikelis,1 in 1934, stated that the inverse ratio between blood chlorides and blood sugar was not a compensatory mechanism concerned with the maintenance of proper osmotic pressure relations. He suggested that the blood chloride change was associated with some phase of carbohydrate metabolism. Following his report an investigation was started in this laboratory to determine what effect variations in the amount of sodium chloride in the diet would have upon the deposition of glycogen in the liver and muscles of the white rat.Methods. Series 1. Young male rats were divided into 18 groups consisting of three animals each, the majority of which did not vary in weight by more than 10 gm. One animal of each group was placed on a diet poor in chlorides, one was placed on a diet rich in chlorides, and the third received a control diet. The control diet consisted of casein 33 percent, agar agar 2 percent, Osborne and Mendel2 salt mixture 4 percent, cod liver oil 2 percent, butter (unsalted) 7 percent, yeast 8 per...