Hepatic morphology and effects of intravenous injection of sodium propionate on plasma propionate and glucose in fed and fasted dairy cattle.

Sodium propionate (3 mmol/kg) was injected IV into 8 nonlactating dairy cows before and after 6 days (144 hours) of fasting. During fasting, long-chain fatty acids in plasma increased from 0.30 +/- 0.05 (SE) mM to 1.09 +/- 0.15 mM (P less than 0.05). Liver fat increased from 0.5 +/- 0.3% to 9.3 +/- 1.7% (P less than 0.05). Half-life of injected sodium propionate increased significantly (P less than 0.05) from 7.6 +/- 0.5 minutes to 10.1 +/- 1.0 minutes during fasting. Sulfobromophthalein half-life did not change significantly (3.8 +/- 0.79 minutes to 5.3 +/- 1.3 minutes). Increases in plasma glucose concentrations after propionate loading were significantly less during fasting than during feeding. Thus, the change in glucose concentration served as an indicator of hepatic conversion of propionate to glucose. Increases in glucose concentration of less than 2 mM at 30 minutes after propionate loading indicated that liver function was altered in nonlactating dairy cows.