THE HALF-LIFE OF PROGESTERONE IN THE PERIPHERAL BLOOD OF A EWE AT TWO STAGES OF GESTATION

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Abstract
SUMMARY: [4-14C]Progesterone (10 μc, 154 μg.) was injected intravenously into a Suffolk ewe on the 115th day of gestation, and again a few hours before parturition. Within 5 min. of the injection, only about 1% of the radioactive progesterone was present in the circulating blood. During the ensuing 25 min., the fall in concentration was approximately exponential, the estimated half-lives being 7·3 ± 1·2 min. at day 115 and 8·1 ± 0·6 min. just before lambing. The difference between these half-lives is not significant. Subject to a number of assumptions, these half-lives may be used as a measure of the rate at which progesterone is metabolized in the body. It is concluded that there are no pronounced changes in the rate of progesterone production or metabolism during the course of pregnancy in the ewe.

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