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SITE OF CATECHOLAMINE MODULATION OF FETO-MATERNAL ELECTRIC POTENTIAL DIFFERENCE IN THE PIG
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 January 2001
Abstract
Feto-maternal vascular (PDF-M) and amniotic-maternal (PDA-M) potential differences were measured simultaneously on seven occasions in six conscious pigs of 100-106 days gestation. Resting values of PDF-M and PDA-M were not significantly different although the range was wide. Fetal intravascular injection of 20 µg adrenaline, but not of saline, was associated with a prompt reversible change, of equal magnitude, in both PDF-M and PDA-M. In some experiments polarity was reversed. Feto-amniotic potential difference did not change. There was no change in fetal plasma K+ and Na+ concentrations. Because of the simultaneous and equal alterations in PDF-M and PDA-M following adrenaline and the anatomical configuration of the pig conceptus, we conclude that the catecholamine modifiable component of PDF-M is generated by electrogenesis in the pig placenta, probably by its chorionic (trophoblastic) cell layer.
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- © The Physiological Society 1998
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