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Glucose utilization by components of the mouse conceptus during early embryogenesis

Mouse conceptuses were collected from female mice between day 6.5 and day 9.5 of pregnancy, dissected into their component parts and incubated for 2.5 h at 37°C in droplets of Hepes-buffered medium containing 1 or 5 mmol glucose l^–1 supplemented with 0.33 mmol pyruvate l^–1 plus either 1 or 5 mmol (DL) lactate l^–1 under oil. Glucose disappearance and lactate appearance were measured enzymatically at the end of incubation. High glucose concentration doubled utilization of this substrate per microgram of embryonic protein, but the change in lactate concentration had no effect on glucose turnover. Over the whole period of development studied, tissue from the ectoplacental cone exhibited the lowest rate of glucose turnover of all tissues isolated. At day 8.5, there was little difference between yolk sac and embryonic tissues, but by day 9.5, the yolk sac had a higher rate of utilization of glucose than did embryonic tissues. By this time, the embryonic tissues had started to show some metabolic differentiation, with head and visceral tissue exhibiting 20% higher turnover of glucose than that of body tissue. Overall, the rate of glucose utilization fell as development progressed and the estimate of the relative rate of glucose utilization on day 9.5 was half the value on day 6.5.