“…Adrenal weight, the ratio of adrenal weight to body weight, and in vitro production of cor ticosteroids increase in the pig fetus in the last days of prenatal life [2,5,27], A recent study demonstrated that pigs with low birth weights had increased relative adrenal weight, plasma total cortisol and CBG binding capacity at 3 and 7 days of age compared with high birth weight pigs [30], In the 114-day-old fetuses of our study, body weight was likewise corre lated with total cortisol (r = -0.29, p < 0.05) and CBG binding capacity (r = -0.37, p<0.05), as well as total protein (r = -0.28. p<0.05), albumin (r = -0.42, p < 0.01), per centage of albumin-bound cortisol (r = -0.40, p < 0.01), and free cortisol levels (r = -0.31, p < 0.01). Conversely, the lighter pigs at this age had a lower percentage of CBG-bound cortisol (r = 0.31, p < 0.01).…”