Abstract

Under the extreme change of the environment, animals react physiologically to adapt to the stress and secrete catecholamines. Cold exposure is a kind of the environmental stress. Author tried to determine the amount of catecholamines in rat urine as a parameter of physiological response to cold stress. Urinary catecholamine was measured by using HPLC with fluorescence detector, coation exchange column prepacked with Bio-Rex 70 and ammonium pentaborate as catecholamine eluent. The amount of dopamine in normal state rat urine was 42.0 ng, but under the low temperature of 5 degrees C, the dopamine amount was increased to 221.25 ng/5 ml. Above findings are suggesting that catecholamine secretion, especially dopamine, increase in the stressful condition such as cold exposure.