Errors in blood flow measurements

The recycling of carbon in glucose, lactate and alanine in sheep

Pregnant ewes with catheters implanted in an artery and the uterine and recurrent tarsal veins were infused at a constant rate with U-(14)C-labelled glucose, alanine or bicarbonate. Measurements were made of the overall and local fractional contribution of glucose and alanine to CO(2) production and of the extent of interconversion of these metabolites. In the whole animal, by coupling the results with the authors' previous study of lactate metabolism, a solution was obtained to an open unrestricted 4-compartment model of the exchange of carbon between glucose, lactate, alanine and CO(2). A more limited study was made with non-pregnant sheep because complete data for lactate interactions with alanine were not available. Our analysis of glucose/lactate/alanine/CO(2) interactions in pregnant sheep suggests that about two-thirds of the glycogenic carbon was oxidised fairly directly to CO(2). There was relatively little recycling of glucose carbon through lactate and alanine so that most of the remaining glycogenic carbon was stored as product with relatively long turnover time. It is possible that much of this was in the form of muscle glycogen, and analysis of glycogenic carbon exchange across the hind limb muscle was consistent with this conclusion. In non-pregnant ewes, the findings, although incomplete, suggested that there were no great differences from the findings in pregnant ewes.

Measurement of the rate of substrate cycling between acetate and acetyl-CoA in sheep muscle in vivo. Effects of infusion of acetate

1. The rate of substrate cycling between acetate and acetyl-CoA in sheep hindlimb muscle was measured from the decrease of [14C]acetate specific radioactivity across the tissue in vivo. 2. The rate of cycling was 0.005-0.015 mumol/min per g and, in two of the three sheep investigated, was approximately doubled as a result of infusing 2 mol acetate/day intravenously. 3. The results indicate that this cycle contributes only approx. 0.5% of the total heat produced by the animal and would probably make only a relatively small contribution to any heat increment of feeding associated with diets producing large amounts of acetate.