Metabolic consequences of induced hypoxia in newborn lambs.

Metabolic and nutritional consequences of making newborn lambs breath a 5% oxygen, 95% nitrogen atmosphere during six hours after birth were studied. Blood samples were collected at the end of the treatment and two hours after every meal given 6 h 30, 12 h 30, 18 h 30 and 24 h 30 after birth. Rectal temperature, blood pH, packed cell volume and plasmatic glucose, lactate, triglycerides, non-esterified fatty acids, inorganic phosphorus, uric acid and iron were measured. Comparison with control lambs established that all these parameters were strongly altered except packed cell volume and non-esterified fatty acids disturbed to a lesser extent. Nevertheless, in the last sample, taken after 26 h 30 of aerial life, no significant differences remained detectable, concerning the parameters quoted above. The exception was triglyceridemia, which was still higher in treated lambs, and could be due to lack of utilization of alimentary lipids.