title: The effect of severing the spinal cord of fetal lambs on length of gestation.
abstract: Lambs with spinal cords that had been severed near the head at 50 days of gestation were born after a shortened gestation of about 128 days. Lambs with severed spinal cords born as a twin with an intact lamb had a normal gestation of 148 days. The presence of an intact spinal cord or the signals that it might carry apparently influence the length of gestation in the ewe.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005260:Female; D007752:Obstetric Labor, Premature / Q000503:physiopathology*; D011247:Pregnancy; D012756:Sheep / Q000196:embryology* / Q000502:physiology; D013116:Spinal Cord / Q000196:embryology* / Q000502:physiology