The effects of induced cold torpor and time of year on the plasma acid mucopolysaccharide levels in Pseudemys scripta elegans and Chrysemys picta belli

Abstract

• 1.

  1. During each of 12 consecutive months plasma acid mucopolysaccharides were extracted from new groups of cold-torpid and room-temperature Pseudemys and Chrysemys turtles. Acid mucopolysaccharides were separated as cetylpyridinium complexes into hyaluronic acid, chondroitin sulfate and heparin fractions and quantitated individually as uronic acid.

• 2.

  2. Levels of all three fractions were elevated, significantly, during the winter.

• 3.

  3. Significant differences were found for some of the three fractions between the sexes, the two species and the two environmental temperatures.

• 4.

  4. Correlation between heparin levels, blood clotting times and the period of natural dormancy indicate that increased plasma heparin constitutes at least part of an endogenous mechanism for the maintenance of hemofluidity during dormancy.