[Conditions for greater survival of neonatally thymectomized Swiss mice (author's transl)]

A total of 385 albino Swiss mice, of both sexes, between 24 and 30 hours of age are neonatally thymectomized, by means of a suction pump method. One batch is operated under ether anesthesia, another with sodium pentobarbital, and a third one with Cryoanesthesia. The last batch is subdivided into 2. In one of these the mother is anesthetized with sodium pentobarbital intraperitoneally, during the postoperative recovery of the litter, and in the other the mother is left without treatment. The mothers of the first two batches of thymectomized animals are anesthetized with the same products as their offspring. The percentage of survival of thymectomized breeding mice in greatest in the batch operated under Cryoanesthesia and whose mothers received the above mentioned treatment. Statistically the differences are very significant and they might be accounted to the fact that the mothers are anesthetized while their offspring normalize their physiological constants with better recovery in feeding, hydration, shelter and rest.