Effects of ketone body infusion on hypoglycemic reaction in postabsorptive dogs

Abstract The hypoglycemic reaction following the injection of a large dose of insulin was studied in postabsorptive, anesthetized dogs. The rate of epinephrine release into the adrenal vein was monitored to provide an index of hypoglycemic stress at the level of the central nervous system. As expected an acute discharge of epinephrine was observed during the insulin-provoked hypoglycemia. It is shown that this epinephrine discharge can be prevented by infusing ketone bodies to sustain blood ketone body concentrations in the range of 1 to 2 m M . Arterial-venous differences across the head during hypoglycemia were of 0.20 ± 0.03 mmoles/liter for the extraction of ketone bodies. Since basal arterial-venous difference due to glucose oxidation were of 0.24 ± 0.11 mmoles/liter, it is concluded that the brain of the dog has the ability to use quantitatively important amounts of ketone bodies without prior adaptation to starvation.