Effect of food intake on energy and protein metabolism in the skin of Romney sheep

Sheep fed on either a low (500 g lucerne (Medicago sativa) chaff/d; L) or high (1100 g lucerne chaff/d; H) intake had measurements made, using arterio–venous techniques, of blood flow and energy metabolite and cysteine utilization in the skin. Sheep on the H intake had significantly increased skin blood flow (P = 0.014) and oxygen uptake (P = 0.05). Although the H sheep had higher skin blood flow they showed no difference in skin uptake of either glucose or acetate compared with the L sheep, but the H sheep had a significantly lower output of lactate (P = 0.014). Animals in each group had either [14Clglucose or [14Clacetate infused into the skin which showed that acetate was the predominant precursor of skin sterol and fatty acid synthesis in the H sheep while L sheep skin used both glucose and acetate. The H sheep showed an increase in the net uptake of cysteine by the skin (P = 0.053), and in the uptake of cysteine for protein synthesis (P = 0.078), relative to the L sheep and this increase was of a comparable magnitude to the increase in blood now to the skin. Although blood flow, protein synthesis and energy supply increased in the skin of the H sheep by 200–300%, wool production would only have increased by 10–20 %, suggesting that nutrient flux changes are not the sole level of regulation of wool production.