Fig 1.
In pregnant rabbit at 25th day of gestation, IUGR was surgically induced by uteroplacental vessel ligation and intra-amniotic injections were performed. Control fetuses did not undergo vessel ligature and they had sham injection. IUGR fetuses underwent uteroplacental vessel ligature and sham injection. and finally IUGR-T fetuses underwent uteroplacental vessel ligature and therapy administration which is intra-amniotic injection of 300 μl of modified-parenteral nutrient solution. At 30th day of gestation, cesarean section was performed and uterine horns were exteriorized to perform fetal echocardiography in a subgroup of fetuses from each experimental group. The fetuses were then taken out for survival assessment and biometric measurements and then sacrificed for tissue sampling. Black arrows and yellow circles indicate ligated uteroplacental vessels of fetal sacs in the uterine horn, yellow arrow indicates intra-amniotic injection to the fetal sac and red arrow indicates the ultrasound transducer.
Table 1.
Composition of the modified-parenteral nutrition solution (per 30 mL).
Fig 2.
Survival rate among controls, intrauterine growth restricted cases (IUGR) or IUGR cases with therapy (IUGR-T) in the overall population (Control: 82 surviving out of 115; IUGR: 52 surviving out of 118; IUGR-T: 67 surviving out of 106) (A) and among newborns weighing 20-30g (IUGR: 14 surviving out of 23; IUGR-T: 22 surviving out of 25) (B). * p<0.05 as compared to controls; # p<0.05 as compared to IUGR.
Fig 3.
Scatter dot plot of birth weight among controls, intrauterine growth restricted cases (IUGR) or IUGR cases with therapy (IUGR-T). The horizontal line is the mean.* p<0.05 as compared to controls.
Fig 4.
Birth weight in relation to uterine position.
Birth weight among controls, intrauterine growth restricted cases without (IUGR) or with therapy (IUGR-T) in fetuses that are in extreme positions (ovarian and cervical ends) (Control n = 32; IUGR n = 20; IUGR-T n = 25) (A) and intermediate positions (Control n = 50; IUGR n = 32; IUGR-T n = 42) (B), * p<0.05.
Fig 5.
Survival rate in relation to uterine position.
Survival rate among controls, intrauterine growth restricted cases without (IUGR) or with therapy (IUGR-T) in fetuses that are in extreme positions (Control: 32 surviving out of 41; IUGR 20 surviving out of 40; IUGR-T 25 surviving out of 38) and intermediate positions (Control: 50 surviving out of 74; IUGR: 32 surviving out of 78; IUGR-T: 42 surviving out of 68) positions. * p<0.05 as compared to controls; # p<0.05 as compared to IUGR.
Table 2.
Fetal echocardiographic results in the studied groups.
Fig 6.
Histological analysis of the small intestine.
Hematoxylin and eosin stained sections from controls (A), intrauterine growth restricted cases (IUGR, B) or IUGR cases with therapy (IUGR-T, C), illustrating similar villus height in controls and IUGR-T, with shorter height in IUGR. (a,b,c) 200 x magnification of stained sections, scale bars correspond to 100μm. sb denotes sub-mucosa and m mucosa. (D) Intestinal morphometric measurements of controls, intrauterine growth restricted cases without (IUGR) or with therapy (IUGR-T).