Plasma hormone concentrations in newborn Scottish Blackface lambs during basal and summit metabolism

Abstract

The plasma concentrations of adrenaline, noradrenaline, dopamine, thyroxine, tri-iodothyronine, cortisol, insulin and glucose were estimated in lambs aged one to five hours during basal metabolism and then during summit metabolism (the maximum thermogenic response to cold stress). The increase in metabolic rate from basal metabolism to summit metabolism was associated with marked increases in the plasma levels of adrenaline, noradrenaline, cortisol and glucose and a decrease in the plasma level of insulin. There were no quantitative relationships between summit metabolic rate and the plasma levels of any of the hormones measured. These findings suggest that the marked lamb-to-lamb variation in heat production capacity found here and elsewhere cannot be directly attributed to variation in the activities of the sympathetic nervous system, the thyroid, the adrenal cortex or the pancreas. Concurrent estimations of respiratory quotient suggested that the newborn lamb has a marked dependence on carbohydrate as an energy substrate at high rates of heat production.