Carbohydrate Reserves in the Newborn Infant.

Foetal animals of many species lay down glycogen in the liver during the latter part of gestation and those of some species also accumulate large amounts in the skeletal muscles (Shelley, 1960, 1961). In both tissues the concentration at term is usually higher than in the adult, but it falls to or below the adult level within a few hours of birth even in normal well-fed newborn animals. In most species the foetal heart also contains a high concentration of glycogen at term, which enables it to continue beating in conditions of extreme oxygen lack (Dawes et al., 1959; Mott, 1961). Thus these carbohydrate reserves may be of considerable importance in enabling the newborn animal to survive the changes in food and oxygen supply which occur at birth. The present investigation was undertaken to determine to what extent this is also true for man.