Acetate metabolism in the isolated sheep foetus

Abstract

Sheep foetuses over the age range 105-142 days and maintained on an extracorporeal circuit removed exogenous acetate at 2.0[long dash]4. 9 mg/kg. min. Urinary loss of acetate was less than 12. 5 percent of the administered amount. The rate of acetate removal appeared to be unaffected by the addition of glucose to the circuit. The removal of glucose also seemed to be unaffected by the presence of acetate. A decline in the plasma concentration of free fatty acids and ketone bodies was also observed during the perfusion. It is concluded that under these conditions acetate may have accounted for about one half of the oxygen consumption. The contribution of free fatty acids and ketone bodies must have been small. The relevance of these findings to the nutrition of the foetus in utero is discussed.