[Influence of a low-protein diet on the acute toxicity of a pesticide: Nabam].

Male rats are fed during twenty eight days from the weaning with semi-synthetic isocaloric diets containing 3,5 p. 100 and 26 p. 100 of proteins under the from of casein and with a standard laboratory diet. At the end of this period the LD50 and the pathological clinical syndrome of a fungicid belonging to the dithiocarbamate series : the Nabame, are determined in each of the groups of rats receiving their respective diet. The LD50 is significantly reduced among the rats with a deficiency in proteins compared with the LD50 determined among the two other groups of animals. A likely explanation is to be looked for, at least for a part, on the level of the production or of the activity of detoxicating microsomal hepatic enzymes which the restrictions of nitrogen supply could reduce. The pathological - clinical syndrome of toxicity : stimulation then depression of the central nervous system, severe inflammation of the gastro-intestinal tract, important renal necrosis, is essentially the same among all the animals and it does not seem to be influenced by the level or nature of the proteinic supply.