Electrolyte, water and hexosamine content of animal tissue in hypothyroidism and thyrotoxicosis of different degrees of severity

Sodium and water content progressively grows in the skeletal muscles and skin of thyroidectomized dogs in the course of diuresis fall and in rats under thyroid gland chemical blockade. The skin hexosoamine concentration, influencing water retention depending on hypothyrosis duration, increases. The potassium content in the dog muscles and skin as well as in the rat muscles is lowered, being unchanged in the rat skin. In experimental thyrotoxicosis of dogs during polyuria the sodium and water content in the muscles and skin is reduced after thyroxin administration, the potassium level remaining unchanged. In latter pathology (oliguria development) sodium and water retention in the tissues is observed, the potassium level being decreased. Similar changes are seen in rats following thyroxin injection.