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Nutrition and Serum Protein Levels in Germfree Guinea Pigs¹

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland

Serum protein levels were compared, by paper electrophoresis, in germfree and conventionally-reared guinea pigs up to the age of 12 weeks. The animals were maintained with a crude diet of guinea pig pellets, rolled oats, kale and carrots, both steam-sterilized and unsterilized. Weights and food consumption were recorded during the growth of the older animals.

Gamma-globulin levels in 12-week-old germfree guinea pigs were similar to those in conventional animals maintained with the same sterilized diet; however, levels in both groups were below those in conventional animals maintained with the unsterilized diet. Germfree animals had 25% lower total serum protein levels than conventional animals fed the same sterilized diet. Most of the difference was in the albumin and alpha-globulin levels.

Germfree guinea pigs did not grow as well as conventional animals fed the same sterilized diet on the same feeding schedule. Weights averaged only 74% of those of the conventional animals at 12 weeks; in addition, 25 to 37% of the weights of the germfree guinea pigs consisted of cecum and contents, as compared with an average of 7% in the conventional animals. Calculations indicated that the germfree animals actually had a higher daily food consumption on a body-weight basis, excluding the weight of the cecum and contents, than did the conventional animals.

It would appear, therefore, that the lack of a bacterial flora affected adversely the nutrition of germfree guinea pigs fed a crude diet. The lower total serum protein levels could have been a reflection of this inadequate nutrition.

² Laboratory of Germfree Animal Research.

³ Laboratory of Parasitic Diseases.

Manuscript received 5 May 1961.