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(Circulation. 2000;102:926.)
© 2000 American Heart Association, Inc.

Basic Science Reports

Perinatal Changes in Myocardial Metabolism in Lambs

Beatrijs Bartelds, MD, PhD; Hennie Knoester, MD; Gioia B. Smid; Janny Takens; G. Henk Visser, PhD; Luit Penninga; Feike R. van der Leij, PhD; Gertie C. M. Beaufort-Krol, PhD, MD; Willem G. Zijlstra, PhD, MD; Hugo S. A. Heymans, PhD, MD; Jaap R. G. Kuipers, PhD, MD

From the Division of Pediatric Cardiology, Department of Pediatrics, Beatrix Children’s Hospital; Groningen Utrecht Institute for Drug Exploration; and the Centre for Isotope Research (G.H.V.), Groningen, The Netherlands.

Correspondence to B. Bartelds, MD, PhD, Division of Pediatric Cardiology, Beatrix Children’s Hospital, Hanzeplein 1, PO Box 30.0019700 RB, Groningen, The Netherlands. E-mail b.bartelds{at}planet.nl

Background—Lactate accounts for a third of myocardial oxygen consumption before and in the first 2 weeks after birth. It is unknown how the remainder of myocardial oxygen is consumed. Glucose is thought to be important before birth, whereas long-chain fatty acids (LC-FA) are the prime substrate for the adult. However, the ability of the myocardium of the newborn to use LC-FA has been doubted.

Methods and Results—We measured the myocardial metabolism of glucose and LC-FA with [U-¹³C]glucose and [1-¹³C]palmitate in chronically instrumented fetal and newborn lambs. In fetal lambs, myocardial oxidation of glucose was high and that of LC-FA was low. Glucose and LC-FA accounted for 48±4% and 2±2% of myocardial oxygen consumption, respectively. In newborn lambs, oxidation of glucose decreased, whereas oxidation of LC-FA increased. Glucose and LC-FA accounted for 12±3% and 83±19% of myocardial oxygen consumption. To test whether near-term fetal lambs could use LC-FA, we increased the supply of LC-FA with a fat infusion. In fetal lambs during fat infusion, the oxidation of LC-FA increased 15-fold. Although the oxidation of LC-FA was still lower than in newborn lambs, the contribution to myocardial oxygen consumption (70±13%) was the same as in newborn lambs.

Conclusions—These data show that glucose and lactate account for the majority of myocardial oxygen consumption in fetal lambs, whereas in newborn lambs, LC-FA and lactate account for the majority of myocardial oxygen consumption. Moreover, we showed that the fetal myocardium can use LC-FA as an energy substrate.

Key Words: metabolism • glucose • fatty acids • blood flow • isotopes

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