The effect of severing the spinal cord of fetal lambs on length of gestation.
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.
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