Autoshaped discrimination learning in chicks incubated under normobaric hyperoxia.

White Leghorn chicken eggs were exposed to either 60% O2 or room air (21% O2) for the first 19 days of incubation. Chicks that hatched from these eggs were then tested in discrimination learning tasks in which keypecking was autoshaped to colored lights that were paired with either access to food (Experiment 1) or heat (Experiment 2). Chronic prenatal exposure to 60% O2 reduced hatchability but did not affect mean hatching time. Although previous research has shown that hyperoxic treatment accelerates growth in chick embryos until the 18th day of incubation, experimental chicks weighed either the same (Experiment 1) or less (Experiment 2) than controls at hatching. Prenatal exposure to hyperoxia depressed rate of acquisition, but not final performance level in both discrimination tasks. The initial performance deficit appeared to reflect a temporary depression of activity or arousal, possibly due to a relatively greater hypothermia in experimental chicks. This general pattern of results was attributed to premature depletion of essential nutrients within the egg as a result of oxygen-induced growth acceleration.

Organ growth in chick embryos incubated in 40% or 70% oxygen.

Incubation of eggs in 60% oxygen has been shown to enhance growth of the chick embryo. To determine whether oxygen accelerates growth over a range of concentrations, eggs were incubated in 40% or 70% O2. Control eggs, pair-matched by initial weight, were simultaneously incubated in room air (21% O2). Embryo and organ weights from matched pairs of eggs were compared on incubation days 14, 16 and 18 (40% O2) or 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18 (70% O2). Embryos incubated in 40% O2 displayed a pattern of growth enhancement similar to that previously reported for 60% O2. Accelerated embryonic growth was maintained through day 18. The heart showed the greatest percentage increase in weight over control, exceeding that of the whole embryo on days 16 and 18. The brain displayed significant enhancement only on day 16. Weight of the liver was unaffected by hyperoxia. Embryos in 70% O2 exhibited accelerated growth in all of the tissues examined early in incubation. Growth rate of the hyperoxic embryos then declined, so that embryo weight on day 18 did not differ from control. The brain, heart, eye, and proventriculus plus gizzard from 70% O2 embryos weighed significantly less than controls on day 18. Growth inhibition was most striking in the heart; heart/body weight ratio of 70% O2 embryos was significantly less than control throughout the observation period. The results confirm the growth accelerative effect of oxygen and suggest that the degree of growth enhancement is proportional to the ambient oxygen concentration. Accelerated growth cannot be maintained, however, in 70% O2.

Oxygen availability and growth of the chick embryo.

Two experiments were performed using White Leghorn eggs incubated in 50% humidity, at 38 degrees centigrade, and an average barometric pressure of 747 Torr. In one experiment, eggs in the experimental group were each half covered with a neoprene membrane, reducing the diffusing capacity by approximately 20%, and incubated in 21% O2. In the second experiment, the experimental eggs were incubated (uncovered) in 60% O2. Control eggs were incubated (uncovered in 21% O2 simultaneously with the experimental eggs in each study. A relationship between egg surface area (calculated from weight of the freshly laid egg) and embryo weight at 18 days was confirmed for all three groups. When comparisons were made among the groups, there was significant retardation of embryonic growth in the half-covered eggs; in contrast, embryos from eggs incubated in 60% O2 were significantly heavier at 18 days that control eggs incubated in air. The fact that embryo growth can be accelerated by incubation of the egg in 60% O2 suggests that the oxygen tension in blood leaving the chorioallantoic capillaries normally limits the rate of embryonic growth for the first 18 days of incubation in this species.

Effects of restriction of maternal uterine blood supply on postnatal conditioning of heart rate and behavioral development in dogs.

An examination was made of the heart rate responses during aversive classical conditioning of 5- to 6-week-old Labrador puppies exposed to restricted maternal uterine blood supply during gestation. The direction of the heart rate responses of the treated puppies was consistently decelerative, whereas nontreated controls showed both decelerations and accelerations. The absence of accelerative heart rate changes, combined with the observed depression of base level heart rate and attenuated emotional behavior in the experimental animals relative to controls suggests that uterine blood supply insufficiency may have impaired normal autonomic development in utero.