The Effects of Thiouracil on Metabolism

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Abstract
Three diets in which the level of thiouracil was the only variable were compared in a 10-week growth, metabolism, and body balance study using 24 male rats, selected as 8 sets of litter-mate triplicates, which were between 50 and 55 days of age when placed on experiment. Each rat of a given triplicate received identical quantities of food. The metabolizable energy of the ration was unaffected by thiouracil and no significant differences were found in the digestibility of protein or feed energy or in the body gains of protein. However, the rats receiving 0.1% and 0.2% thiouracil in their diets gained respectively 1.7 and 2.2 times as much energy as the rats on the same diet without thiouracil, these differences in body gain being mainly in the form of fat. Greater gain in body fat was accompanied by a corresponding decrease in heat production.