Litorin and litorin-albumin conjugate as effective regulators of body temperature in rats.

Intraperitoneal injection of the bombesin-like peptide litorin (0.5 ml of a 10(-5) M solution) led to a short-lived decrease in the body temperature (maximum of 0.9 degrees C) of laboratory rats. In contrast, immunization with litorin conjugated to bovine serum albumin (BSA) led to an increase in body temperature from 36.6 +/- 0.1 to 37.2 +/- 0.1 degrees C that persisted for at least 4 weeks and which was probably due to the binding of endogenous litorin by the newly formed antibody. These results suggest that litorin is involved in the physiological regulation of thermal homeostasis. The temperature of control rats immunized with Freund's adjuvant and BSA without litorin fluctuated around normal at 36.6 +/- 0.1 degrees C over this period. Rat body weight increased evenly during the experiment in both the experimental animals and the two control groups. However, the volume of food intake in the hour following 24 h food deprivation was lower in rats immunized with conjugated litorin than in the control groups.