[Establishment of a new rat model of intrauterine growth retardation].
OBJECTIVE
To establish intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR) models in rats for study of the etiology, pathology and therapy of this disease.


METHODS
Partial ligation of the medial segment of the uterine artery and vein was performed in 10 Sprague-Dawley rats with pregnancy (17 d) to establish IUGR models, and another 9 rats with pregnancy of the same length which did not receive the operation were used as control. On day 21 of pregnancy, the fetuses and placentas in both groups were surgically taken and weighted, and the incidence of IUGR and mortality in the fetus were observed.


RESULTS
Significant decrease in the average weight of the fetuses (3.32+/-0.54 g) and placentas (0.38+/-0.05 g) occurred in the ligated group as compared with those of the control group (4.55+/-0.76 g and 0.44+/-0.11 g, P<0.005). An incidence of IUGR as high as 33.33% was resulted in the fetus of ligation group, significantly higher than that in the control group (1.14%, P<0.005), but no significant difference was observed in the mortality between the 2 groups (4.94% vs 3.41%, P>0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
IUGR models can be successfully established in SD rats by partial ligation of the medial segment of the uterine artery and vein.
Pan
Shi-Lei
SL
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Zhujiang Hospital, First Military Medical University, Guangzhou 510282, China.
Yu
Yan-Hong
YH
D000818:Animals; D001724:Birth Weight; D005260:Female; D005317:Fetal Growth Retardation / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000628:therapy; D023421:Models, Animal; D011247:Pregnancy; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley