TABLE 5.

Concentrations of metabolites and hormones in the serum of control and arginine-treated ewes at 1 h after administration on d 121 of pregnancy¹

	Treatment group			Litter size
Variables	Arginine, n = 20	Control, n = 14	P-values	Twins, n = 10	Triplets, n = 12	Quadruplets, n = 12	P-value
BHB, mmol/L	0.57 ± 0.11	0.96 ± 0.15	0.05	0.68 ± 0.19ab	0.50 ± 0.13b	1.09 ± 0.16a	0.03
FFA, μmol/L	369 ± 47	433 ± 61	0.42	224 ± 71c	430 ± 61b	549 ± 68a	0.01
Glucose, mmol/L	2.60 ± 0.12	2.32 ± 0.16	0.17	2.59 ± 0.19	2.55 ± 0.16	2.23 ± 0.17	0.28
Glycerol, μmol/L	34.1 ± 3.4	36.7 ± 4.2	0.63	26.4 ± 5.2	36.6 ± 4.3	43.2 ± 4.5	0.07
Lactate, mmol/L	1.47 ± 0.18	1.09 ± 0.23	0.20	0.71 ± 0.28b	0.93 ± 0.23b	2.18 ± 0.24a	<0.01
TG, μmol/L	330 ± 32	292 ± 39	0.45	370 ± 48	262 ± 41	302 ± 42	0.24
Urea, mmol/L	6.57 ± 0.30	6.53 ± 0.37	0.93	6.72 ± 0.45	7.02 ± 0.38	5.90 ± 0.40	0.14
Ammonia, μmol/L	97.3 ± 2.6	108 ± 3.2	0.01	82.9 ± 3.9c	99.9 ± 3.3b	126 ± 3.5a	<0.01
Insulin, pmol/L	116 ± 18	97.4 ± 23	0.53	136 ± 28	110 ± 24	75.5 ± 25	0.28
GH, μg/L	2.97 ± 0.21	3.13 ± 0.23	0.60	3.11 ± 0.28	3.02 ± 0.29	3.03 ± 0.26	0.97

¹Data are means ± SEM. Means in a row with superscripts without a common letter differ, < 0.05.