Magnitude and pattern of compensatory growth in rats after cold exposure

ABSTRACT It is a common observation that normal growth is affected or suppressed in young individuals by environmental adversities and physical disturbances. On the other hand, when health or favorable conditions are restored, the tempo of growth promptly accelerates as if the individual is trying to make up for the growth debt incurred. Tanner has referred to this increased growth rate after diseases or starvation as compensatory or ‘catch-up’ growth, a topic on which he has written eloquently and fully in a number of articles (1963a, b). He considers this compensatory growth as a ‘self-stabilizing’ or ‘target-seeking’ phenomenon in the regulatory control of growth.