抄録
Essential fatty acid (EFA)-deficient female rats of Wistar strain were mated with normal male rats. EFA-deficient newborn rats were delivered with uterotomy from the EFA-deficient animals at 22 days of gestation. The survival time of EFA-deficient newborn rats were shorter than that of the normal newborn rats when these newborn rats were left after birth, survival times of EFA-deficient were 10〜18 hours and that of normal were 40〜50 hours. It was found that the weight losses were severer in EFA-deficient newborn rats as compared with those in normal newborn animals, and that the weight losses were corresponding to the water losses. However, when EFA-deficient newborn rats were kept under high humidity, their survival times extended and the rates of the body water loss were decreases correspondingly. These facts suggest that the severe dehydration due to EFA deficiency is one of the most important fatal causes in newborn rats.
