Effect of hypoxemia on tissue glycogen content and glycolytic enzyme activities in fetal sheep

We have tested the hypothesis that prolonged fetal hypoxemia causes a reduction in glycogenolytic enzyme activities and/or a depletion of fetal glycogen stores. We compared the effects of short (4 h) and prolonged (24 h) periods of reduced maternal uterine blood flow (RUBF) on glycogen content and on the activities of glucose-6-phosphatase (G-6-Pase), glycogen phosphorylase (GPase), and glycogen synthase (GSase) in selected fetal tissues. RUBF was reduced in 10 pregnant sheep at 135 days of gestation (term approximately 146 days) for either 4 h (n = 5) or 24 h (n = 5); 5 other fetuses were used as controls. During RUBF, fetal SaC2 was decreased from 61.6 +/- 3.9 to 22.0 +/- 1.4% at 4 h and to 26.7 +/- 1.2% at 24 h. Hepatic glycogen content was significantly reduced at 4 h of RUBF, but was not reduced further at 24 h. Fetal liver GPase (active and total enzyme activity) and G-6-Pase activities were reduced at 4 h of RUBF but tended to return toward control values at 24 h. Similarly, hepatic GSase activity tended to decrease at 4 h of RUBF, although the reduction was not quite significant (P = 0.08). We conclude that RUBF causes a reduction of fetal glycogen stores and a reduction in G-6-Pase and GPase activity at 4 h. Fetal tissue glycogen contents were not reduced further at 24 h, compared with 4 h of RUBF, which indicates that fetal glycogenolysis is reduced during this time, probably because of the inhibition of GPase and G-6-Pase. It is not known why the activities of these enzymes are reduced during prolonged RUBF, when circulating epinephrine and norepinephrine concentrations are high.