Parenteral administration of twin-bearing ewes with L-arginine enhances the birth weight and brown fat stores in sheep

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Table 2 Body weight, skeletal dimensions, organ weights and digestive tract weight of fetuses at d 140 of pregnancy (P140) from twin-bearing ewes either supplemented with arginine or saline (control) from P100 to P140 ¹

		Arginine	Control	SEM	P value
n		18	22
Body weight (kg) and dimensions² (cm)
	Fetal weight	5.2	5.4	0.2	0.53
	Crown rump length	59.6	59.6	0.5	0.83
	Thoracic girth	36.4	35.9	0.2	0.13
	Front leg length	32.3	31.8	0.2	0.07
	Hind leg length	38.0	37.5	0.3	0.17
Organ weight (g)²
	Heart	38.6	36.4	1.5	0.28
	Lungs	163.1	154.5	5.1	0.25
	Liver	132.5	134.5	4.3	0.75
	Spleen	7.8	7.9	0.5	0.82
	Right Kidney	12.6	12.7	0.4	0.95
	Left Kidney	12.0	12.3	0.3	0.48
	Perirenal fat	8.9	7.7	0.4	0.03
	Thymus	32.0	29.9	1.4	0.30
	Lymph node	1.27	1.25	0.2	0.95
	Thyroid glands	1.8	1.8	0.1	0.80
	Adrenal glands	0.7	0.7	0.1	0.56
Digestive tract weight (g) ²
	Stomach	29.4	27.3	2.5	0.55
	Large intestine	18.7	18.4	0.7	0.78
	Small intestine	104.3	106.2	3.8	0.72

¹Data are presented as means (predicted from the fitted statistical model) and average SEM, together with P value for treatment effect. ²With the exception of fetal weight, data were analyzed with fetal weight as covariate.