1. Glucose homeostasis in the newborn: effects of an intravenous glucose infusion in normal and intra-uterine growth-retarded neonatal piglets.
- Author
-
Flecknell PA, Wootton R, Royston JP, and John M
- Subjects
- Animals, Blood Glucose metabolism, Female, Fetal Growth Retardation metabolism, Glucose administration & dosage, Glucose pharmacokinetics, Homeostasis, Infusions, Intravenous, Pregnancy, Swine Diseases metabolism, Animals, Newborn metabolism, Fetal Growth Retardation veterinary, Glucose metabolism, Swine metabolism, Swine Diseases congenital
- Abstract
Disturbances of glucose homeostasis are a common clinical problem in low birth weight human infants. Previous studies have demonstrated that the intra-uterine growth-retarded piglet is a suitable animal model for the study of such problems. The effects of an intravenous glucose infusion on glucose homeostasis have been studied in normal and intrauterine growth-retarded neonatal piglets using a non-steady state tracer technique. Despite suppression of hepatic glucose output, hyperglycaemia (plasma glucose greater than 10.0 mmol/l) developed in the majority of animals. The hyperglycaemia resulted from a failure to increase glucose utilisation adequately in response to the glucose infusion. Growth-retarded animals had an impaired ability to increase their rate of glucose utilisation, although, in common with the normally grown animals, they demonstrated a graded response to different infusion rates of glucose.
- Published
- 1987
- Full Text
- View/download PDF