BLOOD-CHEMICAL AND OTHER CONDITIONS IN NORMAL AND ADRENALECTOMIZED SLOTHS

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Abstract
Normal non-fasting 2-toed and 3-toed sloths (Choloepus hoffmanni and Bradypus griseus) show very much lower hepatic glycogen reserves than are found in higher mammalian types. Serum Na and chloride and serum sugar are also somewhat lower. Sloths possess only about one-half the amt. of muscle (by %) found in higher forms, and are probably no more than 1/10 as active. Normal body temp. levels are 3[degree] to 4[degree] lower. The liver is moreover only about 1/2 the size of that found in other mammalian types. After adrenal removal blood-chemical and tissue conditions in the sloth show changes which are generally in the same direction as those found in higher types. Serum glucose and liver glycogen are greatly reduced to levels which would appear to be incompatible with life. In correlation muscle and cardiac glycogen values in adrenal insufficiency were also markedly lowered. Considering the extremely short survival of the adrenalectomized sloth[long dash]about 26 hrs. only on the average, which is much shorter than that found in any other animal to date[long dash]as well as its remarkable lethargy, which is more apparent after operation, the foregoing observations on carbohydrate reductions are more emphatically significant.

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