Effect of Pregnancy Upon the Emptying of the Gall Bladder.

Abstract

It has been definitely established that the feeding of certain foods, particularly egg yolk and cream will cause the gall bladder to empty; the emptying is due to a contraction of its intrinsic musculature. The mechanism involved in the contraction of the gall bladder has not been determined. It was felt, however, that should a chemical or a nervous mechanism be responsible, it could be determined by feeding pregnant animals egg yolk and cream, and observing the condition of the fetal gall bladder at a time when the maternal gall bladder was empty.

Accordingly, a group of pregnant dogs and guinea pigs were fed egg yolk and cream, the usual test-meal. After a period equivalent to that in which the gall bladder empties completely in the nonpregnant guinea pig and partially in the nonpregnant dog, the animals were etherized, the gall bladder explored under sterile technic and one or more of the fetuses removed. However, the gall bladder of the mother, explored at a time after feeding equivalent to that in which the nonpregnant animal's gall bladder is partially or completely emptied, showed little or no change in size. Observations were made on a large series of pregnant dogs and guinea pigs, but the gall bladder was not observed to empty following the ingestion of egg yolk and cream except in two dogs in which the gall bladders were examined 8 and 10 hours respectively after the taking of the fat meal, when slight but definite emptying was noted.

After we discovered that the gall bladder of the pregnant dog and the guinea pig did not empty as in the nonpregnant animal, we obtained a large number of spermophiles (common striped gopher) including males, nonpregnant females and females during various periods of pregnancy.