SummaryThe experiment was conducted to study the relationships among glucose, insulin, potassium, magnesium and calcium concen trations in the blood plasma following intravenous glucose or epinephrine injection. Plasma concentrations of potassium and magnesium were lowered after the respective injection of glucose and epinephrine. When compared to epinephrine injection, an injection of glucose solution decreased potassium and magnesium concentrations in plasma more rapidly. Moreover, the recovery of the concentration levels of these minerals was faster when the animals were injected with glucose rather than epinephrine. These changes were inversely related to those of plasma insulin concentrations. The results may indicate that increased insulin secretion caused by glucose or epinephrine injection results in decreases of the plasma magnesium as well as potassium concentration in sheep. Key Words potassium, magnesium, insulin, glucose, epinephrine, in sulin, sheep A number of studies have been carried out on the influence of high potassium intake on magnesium metabolism and hypomagnesium tetany in ruminants (1-7). It was reported that an increase in dietary potassium intake lowered plasma mag nesium concentrations in these animals (4-7). However, the mechanism by which hypomagnesemia occurs is not clear. We found in a previous study that high potassium intakes induced a decrease in plasma concentrations of magnesium and glucose as well as an increase in plasma insulin concentration (8). Lentz et al. (9) also reported that injection of potassium chloride into the jugular vein or the rumen of cattle elevated plasma insulin levels and lowered plasma glucose concentrations.The purpose of this experiment was to elucidate the relationships among glucose, insulin, potassium and magnesium concentrations in the blood plasma of 535
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