Previous research into the liver has mainly examined liver function and liver response to energy restriction. There have been few investigations into how liver mass is coupled to body mass, body condition, age, and reproductive events like lactation. Therefore, we examined the scaling relationship between body mass and liver mass and the influences of age, sex, body condition (back fat), and lactation on liver mass to gain insight into liver-mass variation in white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus (Zimmermann, 1780)). Deer from two sites in Texas (89 males, 70 females) were sampled; one site was sampled before the mating season (premating) and the other site was sampled during the mating season. There was an allometric relationship between body mass and liver mass (scalars 0.59–0.80) at both sites. Also, sex and age were predictors of liver mass at one site, whereas lactation was influential at the other location. Controlling for body mass, males had heavier livers than females during the mating but not the premating season and age was positively related to liver mass. Our findings indicate that sex and lactation status were coupled to liver masses, but the effect of these two factors differed between premating and mating seasons. It appears that animals in situations where metabolic demands might be higher than current nutrient intake, such as mature males during the rut or lactating females, have heavier liver masses when body mass is controlled.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.