Proposal Metabolic Rate Essay

869

Basal Metabolic Rate: History, Composition, Regulation, and Usefulness
A. J. Hulbert1,2,* P. L. Else1,3 1 Metabolic Research Centre, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales 2522, Australia; 2Department of Biological Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales 2522, Australia; 3Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales 2522, Australia Accepted 10/31/03 of animal respiration blossomed with the emergence of physiology in the eighteenth century and coincided with the investigation of chemical combustion. In 1766, Karl Scheele discovered oxygen gas and named it fire air; 2 years later, Joseph Priestley independently isolated the same gas, calling it dephlogisticated
Lavoisier disproved the phlogiston theory and showed that air was a mixture of nitrogen and the gas he named oxygen in 1777. Lavoisier should be regarded as the father of the basal metabolic rate (BMR). With his wife as a major collaborator, Lavoisier showed that animal respiration is the combination of oxygen from air with carbon and hydrogen from the animal’s body (which he recognized came from the food) to produce water, fixed air (carbon dioxide), and heat. He showed that the rate of oxygen consumption was influenced by (1) the consumption of food, (2) environmental temperature, and (3) the performance of muscular work. Lavoisier measured the minimal metabolic rate in a resting postabsorptive state, which was probably the first measurement of BMR (Blaxter 1989; Lutz 2002). In the twentieth century, the measurement of metabolic rate became an important part of the examination of bioenergetics and growth. The rate of metabolism of animals can be assessed by measuring a number of variables, including consumption of oxygen, production of carbon dioxide, and
J. Hulbert and P. L. Else Brody S. (1945) 1974. Bioenergetics and Growth. Hafner, New York. Brody S. and R.C. Procter. 1932. Relation between basal metabolism and mature body weight in different species of mammals and birds. University of Missouri Agricultural Experimental Station Research Bulletin. Clausen T.C., C.V. Hardeveld, and M.E. Everts. 1991. Significance of cation transport in control of energy metabolism and thermogenesis. Physiol Rev 71:733–775. Couture P. and A.J. Hulbert. 1995. Membrane fatty acid composition of tissues is related to body mass of mammals. J Membr Biol 148:27–39. Darveau C.A., R.K. Suarez, R.D. Andrews, and P.W. Hochachka. 2002. Allometric cascades as a unifying principle of body mass effects on metabolism. Nature 417:166–170. Else P.L. and A.J. Hulbert. 1981. Comparison of the “mammal machine” and the “reptile machine”: energy production. Am J Physiol 240:R3–R9. ———. 1987. Evolution of mammalian endothermic metabolism: “leaky” membranes as a source of heat. Am J Physiol 253:R1–R7. Else P.L., N. Turner, and A.J. Hulbert. 2004. The evolution of endothermy: role for membranes and molecular activity. Physiol Biochem Zool 77:950–958. Gudbjarnason S., B. Doell, G. Oskardottir, and J. Hallgrimsson. 1978. Modification of cardiac phospholipids and catecholamine stress tolerance. Pp. 297–310 in C. de Duve and O. Hayaishi, eds. Tocopherol, Oxygen and Biomembranes. Elsevier, Amsterdam. Hemmingsen A.M. 1960. Energy metabolism as related to body size