Pancreatic beta cell function in the fetal pig and sow.

Insulin secretion was investigated in acutely anaesthetized and chronically catheterized sows and their fetuses during late gestation. In the conscious animals, the mean fetal concentration of plasma insulin was 8.4 +/- 1.5 microunits/ml which was significantly less than the corresponding maternal value of 33.9 +/- 6.5 microunits/ml (n = 12, P less than 0.01). The plasma concentrations of insulin and glucose in the new-born piglets from these litters were not significantly different from the values observed in utero. The plasma concentration of insulin in the anaesthetized fetuses was significantly less than that in the chronically catheterized piglets over the same range of glucose levels. In the chronically catheterized animals, both fetal and maternal levels of insulin rose with increasing concentrations of plasma glucose while under acute conditions there was no correlation between the endogenous concentrations of insulin and glucose in either the fetuses or their mothers. Infusion of exogenous glucose (0.5 g as a 50% solution in 0.9% NaCl) stimulated the release of insulin in all the chronically catheterized fetuses studied but rarely increased the concentration of insulin in the anaesthetized fetusus. The present findings show that anaesthesia and surgery depress pancreatic beta cell function in the pig, particularly in the fetus.