Maintenance of body temperature is one of the first and most important physiological processes that must be initiated after birth.Failure to sustain homeothermy leads to hypothermia and death. Indeed, in sheep, 40% of non-predator lamb deaths are attributed to cold and cold-related causes. Brown adipose tissue (BAT)is an essential mediator of thermogenesis in many species and is responsible for 50% of the heat generated in the newborn lamb despite comprising only 2% of body weight.Previously, we found that maternal arginine supplementation increased fetal peri-renal BAT by 62%. This observation led us to test the hypothesis that increased the amount of fetal BAT will enhance neonatal thermogenesis at birth and thus combat the effects of cold stress. Thirty-one multiparous Suffolk ewes gestating singletons and twins were assigned to receive either intravenous injections of L-arginine (27 mg/kg bodyweight; n=17) or sterile saline (n=14)
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