Effects of repeated injections of glucagon on the stress response of the immature fowl.

Chicks aged two weeks were injected with either glucagon (50 micrograms/kg) or solvent daily for seven days. The two groups were then divided into two subggroups and received either glucagon or saline and their lipacid and glycaemic responses determined over a 60 minute period. Neither response was modified by the earlier treatment with glucagon. Birds that had received doses of glucagon were found to have increased concentrations of corticosterone in the blood plasma and a tendency to increased concentrations of free fatty acids. The increase in plasma corticosterone induces by a novel injection of glucagon, did not occur when the eighth injection was given.