Respiratory Distress in Newborn Rabbits

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Respiratory distress, clinically similar to that seen in prematurely born human infants, can be induced in newborn rabbits in 3 ways: (1) By disturbing the doe during labour; (2) by delivery of the fetuses into saline solutions (but not into pure nitrogen) with subsequent resuscitation; (3) by delivery after recovery from intrauterine hypoxia. In each case, the respiratory distress is associated with temporary pulmonary edema which appears to be a secondary effect of fluid inhalation. These findings may provide a clue to the now unknown etiology of the respiratory distress syndrome in the human infant.