Effect of insulin and poisons on glucose uptake of sheep and goat placenta

¹ Department of Physiology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut

The basal glucose uptake of the cotyledons of sheep and goats was found to be 1.44 ± 0.09 mg/gm/hr.; that of the fetal chorion to be 2.22 ± 0.11; and that of the maternal uterine mucosa to be 2.05 ± 0.16 mg/gm of tissue/hr. The tissue was obtained from pregnant animals between 45 and 55 days gestation. Insulin, at a concentration of 100 mu/ml, has no effect on net glucose utilization of any of these tissues. Nitrogen and cyanide both increased the basal uptake of cotyledons by approximately 70%. Phlorizin was shown to inhibit both the basal uptake of glucose and the cyanide-accelerated uptake of glucose.