SIMULTANEOUS MEASUREMENT OF METABOLIC FLUX IN PORTALLY-DRAINED VISCERA, LIVER, SPLEEN, KIDNEY AND HINDQUARTER IN THE CONSCIOUS PIG

A method was developed to measure metabolic fluxes simultaneously acro ss the portally-drained viscera (PDV), Liver, spleen, kidney and hindq uarter (HQ) in the conscious pig (20-25 kg). For this purpose, samplin g catheters were implanted in the abdominal artery, portal vein, hepat ic vein, splenic vein, renal vein and caval vein. Further, two extra i nfusion catheters were implanted in the splenic vein and abdominal art ery. These allow continuous infusion of para-aminohippuric acid (PAH), providing a method for estimating the plasma flow of the liver, PDV, spleen, kidney and HQ. To minimize the postoperative recovery period o f the pigs, great attention was paid to the housing conditions. After a recovery period of seven days, pigs were used for experiments twice a week. During the three weeks experimental period, food intake, body temperature, weight gain, blood gas data and plasma flow were monitore d. Mean plasma now was: Liver 52 +/- 6, PDV 40 +/- 5, HQ 20 +/- 2, spl een 4 +/- 1 and kidneys 15 +/- 2 ml/kg body weight/min. These data wer e characteristic for a pig in a conscious normal resting and unstresse d state. The longterm patency rate of the sampling catheters was very high (ranging from 75% to 100%). This was probably due to the preventi on of catheter-related infections using a gentamicin (20 mg/ml), a-chy motrypsin (225 U/ml) solution as catheter filling. We conclude that th is model enables simultaneously liver, PDV, intestine, spleen, liver, kidney and HQ flux measurement of many metabolic substances in the con scious pig.