Variation of plasma ketones and free fatty acids during acute cold exposure in man

¹ Human Environmental Research Unit, Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois

We have studied the magnitude of ketosis induced during acute cold exposure. Plasma and urinary ketone bodies and plasma free fatty acids (FFA) were followed in four healthy young men at rest during a 90-min period of seminude exposure to 0 C in still air. This period was followed by 4 hr of recovery at 25 C. Each subject served as his own control throughout an experimental sequence in which one cold-exposure and corresponding control period (25 C) were experienced each week for 3 successive weeks. The subjects were in a fasting state but with water ad libitum beginning 12 hr prior to the experiment. Light weight clothing was worn during recovery and control periods. The combined group data show a significant increase in plasma FFA during cold exposure as compared with similar control periods. Although true hyperketonemia or hyperketonuria did not develop, the levels of plasma ketones are elevated in the cold-exposure period of the first week. During the second and third week there is no difference between the cold and control plasma ketone concentration. The data suggest that FFA is mobilized as a metabolic substrate during cold exposure and that efficient peripheral utilization of the elevated plasma FFA concentration minimizes hyperketogenesis.

Submitted on April 27, 1964