Suzue T
Department of Physiology, School of Medicine, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Japan.
Neurosci Res. 1992 Jul;14(2):145-57. doi: 10.1016/0168-0102(92)90090-y.
A novel method for the in vitro maintenance of rat fetuses was used to study their physiological properties. Rat fetuses together with the uterus were isolated from anesthetized pregnant rats of 14.5-21.5 days gestation, placed in a chamber, perfused through a cannula inserted into the uterine artery with a physiological solution, and decerebrated. In this condition, it was possible to maintain heartbeats of rat fetuses for 24 h. The in vitro fetuses showed various spontaneous body movements including those that resembled respiration. Various body movements were also observed when mechanical or electrical stimulation was applied to the skin. These body movements were abolished by application of general anesthetics. It was shown that reflex-like electrical activities were retained in spinal cords isolated from fetuses which had been maintained in vitro for 10 h. These results show that in vitro rat fetuses retain abilities to generate various body movements that are presumably mediated by the electrical activities of the central nervous system. The presence of various neural activities, some of which are known to be particularly susceptible to poor psychological conditions, suggests that the condition of the in vitro fetuses is good and that the method may be applied to various studies on late-gestation mammalian fetuses.
一种用于体外维持大鼠胎儿的新方法被用于研究其生理特性。将妊娠14.5 - 21.5天的麻醉孕鼠体内的大鼠胎儿连同子宫一起分离出来，置于一个腔室中，通过插入子宫动脉的套管用生理溶液进行灌注，并摘除大脑。在这种情况下，大鼠胎儿的心跳能够维持24小时。体外胎儿表现出各种自发的身体运动，包括类似呼吸的运动。当对皮肤施加机械或电刺激时，也观察到了各种身体运动。这些身体运动在使用全身麻醉剂后消失。结果表明，从体外维持10小时的胎儿分离出的脊髓中保留了类似反射的电活动。这些结果表明，体外大鼠胎儿保留了产生各种身体运动的能力，这些运动可能是由中枢神经系统的电活动介导的。各种神经活动的存在，其中一些已知对不良心理状况特别敏感，这表明体外胎儿的状况良好，并且该方法可应用于对妊娠晚期哺乳动物胎儿的各种研究。
