Response of plasma and urinary uric acid, creatine and creatinine to dietary protein deficiency and/or whole body gamma-irradiation in desert rodent and albino rats

The effect of whole body gamma-irradiation on the levels of plasma and urinary uric acid, creatine and creatinine was studied in the desert rodent, Psammomys obesus and albino rats subjected to dietary protein deficiency. In albino rats, the levels of uric acid in plasma and urine were higher in the animals kept on high protein diets than in those maintained on non-protein ones. Radiation exposure caused a significant increase in uric acid concentration both in plasma and urine of albino rats, whereas in Psammomys obesus obesus, it exerted a significant drop in uric acid concentration in blood paralleling a marked rise in the daily uric acid excretion in the urine, especially with the high radiation level of 1170 r. Creatinine concentrations in plasma and urine of albino rats were higher than the corresponding values in Psammomys obesus obesus. Radiation exposure in general caused an increase in the creatinine concentration in blood and a decrease in its concentration in urine. Plasma creatine was shown to increase due to the effect of radiation exposure. This runs in parallel with the increase in the excretion of creatine in urine. Creatinuria observed in whole body irradiation is obviously caused by a defect in the ability of skeletal muscle to take up creatine from blood. Such abnormality could be the result of direct damage to the muscle caused by incident radiation