DOI QR Code
Forty-two outbred female Sprague-Dawley rats weighing 145 g were used to study the effects of a beta-agonist, cimaterol, on growth, body composition and urinary excretion of 3-methylhistidine (MH) at 3, 6 and 18 d. Cimaterol (CIM) was administered in the feed at 10 mg/kg. The growth promoting effect of CIM was most evident during the initial part of the feeding period, followed by a gradual decrease in the magnitude of the response with no significant effect at 18 d. The action of CIM was confined to skeletal and cardiac muscles with no stimulating effect on other organs. The amount of urine excretion and urinary MH excretion was reduced (p<.01) at 3 d in the CIM group. No difference was found at 6 d, followed by an increased urine excretion (p<.05) and MH excretion (p<.01) at 18 d. An inverse relationship between growth rate and urinary MH excretion suggested that the increased growth rate of CIM-fed rats during the initial part of the feeding period is primarily attributed to the decreased protein degradation rate. It was further suggested that both fractional synthesis rate and fractional degradation rate increased during the later part of the feeding period.