Effect of Age on Glucose, Reducing Sugars and Plasma Insulin in Blood of Milk-fed Calves

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Abstract
The relationship of blood glucose and total reducing sugars with age was studied in eight calves. Whole blood, plasma and corpuscles were analyzed for both glucose and reducing sugars for the first 7 days after birth and weekly thereafter to 15 weeks. At 1 to 2 hours after birth, glucose and reducing sugars in whole blood averaged 62 and 127 mg/100 ml, respectively. Much of the difference was due to fructose, which declined from 54 mg/100 ml initially to 3 mg/100 ml by 24 hours of age. The glucose in both plasma and corpuscles increased after birth and peaked at day 2. The peak for reducing sugars in all blood fractions was at birth. After this initial difference, glucose and reducing sugars showed similar trends in all blood fractions, i.e., significant (P < 0.01) decreases with age. Glucose and reducing sugars decreased more dramatically in concentration in corpuscles than in plasma. Plasma insulin was assayed in five of the calves at 2, 7, 21, 42, 63 and 98 days. There was no statistically significant relationship between plasma insulin and age. Correlation coefficients for plasma glucose and reducing sugars with plasma insulin were 0.78 and 0.72, respectively; those for corpuscular glucose and reducing sugars with plasma insulin were 0.37 and 0.36, respectively.