Nutritional state and endotoxin fever of newborn rabbits.

At thermoneutral environments 6-10 day-old well-fed rabbits responded to 20 microgram/kg I.V. E. coli endotoxin with biphasic fever: temperature peaks at 60 and 120-150, and a transient fall between 60 and 90 min after endotoxin injection. In rabbits starved for 24 hours, and in runt rabbits body temperature did not rise, but a decline started 60 min after endotoxin administration, corresponding to the transient fall observed in well-fed animals and continuing until about the 100-120th min; thereafter body temperature tended to stabilize at the low level.