Oxygen consumption in fetal rabbit ductus arteriosus (38590)

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 consjmption 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 25.75-26.5 day gestation had an oxygen consumption of 2.05 plus or minus 0.22 (4) mul oxygen/10 mg dry wt/hr, and at 27.5-29.5 it was 5.69 plus or minus 0.28 (7) (P less than 0.001). There was no change with gestational age in the oxygen consumption in the descending aorta (2.15 plus or minus 0.23 mul oxygen/10 mg dry wt/hr).