Acetone Metabolism in Normal and Ketotic Cows

Acetone-2-C ~' was injected intravenously into two spontaneously ketotic cows and one cow fasted for five days, and into all three cows when lactating normally. Peaks in specific activity of respired CO2 and plasma glucose occurred 2 hr later. The standardized specific activity was higher in lactose than in casein or milk fat in all cows, for both the normal and ketotie states. Although the pattern of distribution of C 1~ among the various products was the same in normal and ketotic cows, the over-all recovery of C 1' was only about one-tenth as great in ketotie cows as in normal cows. The data are consistent with acetone metabolism being predominantly glucogenie but quantitatively unimportant in both normal and ketotic cows.