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. 2011 Mar 23;141(5):849–855. doi: 10.3945/jn.111.138172

TABLE 6.

Concentrations of metabolites and hormones in serum on d 100, 121, and 140 of pregnancy in control ewes with different litter sizes1

Day of pregnancy
 Litter size
Variables 100, n = 14 121, n = 14 140, n = 14 P-value Twins, n = 4 Triplets, n = 7 Quadruplets, n = 3 P-value
BHB, mmol/L 0.49 ± 0.15b 0.94 ± 0.16ab 1.16 ± 0.17a 0.05 0.54 ± 0.06b 0.53 ± 0.03b 1.52 ± 0.05a 0.05
FFA, μmol/L 350 ± 50b 434 ± 53b 774 ± 74a <0.01 342 ± 76b 468 ± 52b 749 ± 81a <0.01
Glucose, mmol/L 2.33 ± 0.14 2.32 ± 0.14 1.77 ± 0.21 0.07 2.39 ± 0.21a 2.44 ± 0.14a 1.58 ± 0.22b <0.01
Glycerol, μmol/L 35.6 ± 7.0b 36.7 ± 7.0b 87.6 ± 11a <0.01 43.3 ± 10 46.2 ± 6.6 70.4 ± 11 0.14
Lactate, mmol/L 2.07 ± 0.23a 1.09 ± 0.22b 1.37 ± 0.34b <0.01 1.67 ± 0.34 1.34 ± 0.23 1.55 ± 0.36 0.74
TG, μmol/L 301 ± 28 292 ± 28 254 ± 43 0.63 342 ± 40 265 ± 27 240 ± 43 0.21
Urea, mmol/L 6.99 ± 0.41 6.53 ± 1.41 6.38 ± 0.61 0.69 6.84 ± 0.37 6.67 ± 0.29 6.40 ± 0.47 0.78
Ammonia, μmol/L 109 ± 2.3 108 ± 2.3 109 ± 3.4 0.96 83.6 ± 2.2c 114 ± 1.6b 129 ± 2.7a <0.01
Insulin, pmol/L 110 ± 19a 122 ± 21a 60.9 ± 24b 0.03 107 ± 37 97.1 ± 24 89.0 ± 35 0.94
GH, μg/L 2.65 ± 0.17c 3.14 ± 0.17b 3.89 ± 0.26a <0.01 3.02 ± 0.23 3.27 ± 0.16 3.38 ± 0.26 0.57
1

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