The effect of diet on glucose entry rates in sheep

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Abstract
SUMMARY: An isotope dilution technique has been used to measure the rate of entry of glucose into the metabolic glucose pool and its rate of oxidation in three sheep given diets of barley (85% barley, 15% protein-mineral-vitamin supplement), dried grass or hay. A latin-square design was used and the sheep were fed continuously from an automatic feeding device.Despite large differences in the amounts of α-linked glucose polymer and of crude protein supplied by the diets there were no significant differences between treatments in glucose entry rate, in plasma glucose concentration or in the size of the total body pool of glucose.Calculations based on the specific radioactivity of expired CO2 after 3 h infusions indicated no significant differences between treatments in the percentage of glucose oxidised to CO2 or in the percentage of expired CO2 derived from glucose. The absence of a final ‘plateau’ position in the CO2 activity-time curve, even after 6 h infusions, casts doubt on the validity of these calculations.