Abstract
Summary
Oxygen consumption in fetal rabbit ductus arteriosus and descending aorta was studied after human umbilical artery tissue was used to standardize the technique. A steady state of oxygen consumption persisted for 90-100 min after dissection, and a tissue dry weight of greater than 15 mg was necessary to obtain reliable data, necessitating pooling of rabbit fetal tissue from an entire litter. Ductus arteriosus tissue from 25.75-26.5 day gestation had an oxygen consumption of 2.05 ± 0.22 (4)μI oxygen/10 mg dry wt/hr, and at 27.5-29.5 it was 5.69 ± 0.28 (7) (P < 0.001). There was no change with gestational age in the oxygen consumption in the descending aorta (2.15 ± 0.23 μI oxygen/10 mg dry wt/hr).
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