Disease relevance of GEST

• There were no effects on gestation length, birth weight and postnatal growth [1].
• Outcome measures included: pregnancy characteristics, weight gain, and, in offspring as adults, pain threshold, acoustic startle responses and prepulse inhibition.RESULTS: There was no effect of treatment group on gestation length, number of live-births or still-births, maternal or offspring weight gain, and acoustic startle responses [2].
• The symptoms were a prolonged gestation length (116--117 days), fever, mastitis and agalactia [3].

High impact information on GEST

• Relaxin peaked in pregnant animals at 113 +/- 0.7 days (+/- SE) and in hysterectomized gilts at 113 +/- 0.7 days; gestation length averaged 114 +/- 0.8 days [4].
• In pregnant gilts, progesterone had no effect on the number of live or stillborn piglets at birth, and gestation length was decreased (P < 0.05) [5].
• ACTH treatment of sows during mid- and late gestation had no effects on the gestation length, the number of total born and the frequency of stillborn piglets [6].
• Several quantitative trait loci (QTLs) (vertebrate number, birth weight, age at puberty, growth rate, gestation length, and backfat depth) have been independently mapped to the distal region of swine Chromosome (SSC) 1q in several resource populations [7].
• Results suggestive of linkage at the 5% genome-wide level were observed for the number of stillborn piglets on Chromosome (Chr) 4 (SSC4) (p-value = 0.0001), corpora lutea on SSC8 (p-value = 0.00027), and gestation length on SSC9 (p-value = 0.00019) [8].

Chemical compound and disease context of GEST

• Cortisol levels shortly after birth correlated positively with birth weight (r=0.60, P<0.0001) and with gestation length (r=0.34, P<0.04) [9].

Biological context of GEST

• Sows injected with GRF during GEST (P = .05) and(or) LACT (P less than .01) were lighter than CTL sows at weaning; in addition, sows treated during lactation had less backfat (P less than .01).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)[10]
• The mean gestation length, mean litter size, mean birth and weaning weights for male and female pigs were similar for litters derived from cloned parents versus non-cloned parents [11].
• Gestation length, pigs born alive, average birth weight, survival (d 3 to weaning), and days to estrus were not affected by diet (P > 0.10) [12].
• Neither stage of estrous cycle at onset of treatment nor duration of progestogen treatment affected percentages of gilts farrowing (greater than 73%), average gestation length (116.5 d), or total (10.3), live (9.7) and dead (.6) pigs at birth after artificial insemination at the post-treatment estrus [13].
• To determine the effect of elevated maternal cortisol levels on gene expression of these molecular markers in fetuses, pregnant sows were treated with 100 IU ACTH (Synacthen Depot) s.c. every two days between Day 49 and Day 75 of gestation (normal gestation length 114 days) [14].

Anatomical context of GEST

• Rat hepatocytes showed an extremely high metabolic activity towards NET, LN and GEST resulting in t1/2 values of below 2 min [15].
• Direct heterosis significantly increased number of nipples, weight at puberty, lactation weight loss, litter size, and litter birth weight in Exp. 2. Gestation length in Exp. 1 and age at puberty in Exp. 1 and Exp. 2 were significantly decreased by direct heterosis [16].

Associations of GEST with chemical compounds

• Plasma from fetal pigs on days 110-114 of gestation (gestation length 114 days) had significantly higher levels of total cortisol (p < 0.01), percent albumin-bound and free cortisol (p < 0.10), and free cortisol concentration (p < 0.05) compared to samples on days 90, 100 and 105 [17].
• One-hundred forty multiparous crossbred sows, taken from a herd whose mean gestation length was 114.3 days, were assigned to one of five treatment groups: 1) control vehicle-propylene glycol, 2) 0.5 mg alfaprostol (AP) [18].
• Eighty seven sows, taken from a herd whose mean gestation length was 116 days, were allotted at random on day 114 of gestation to one of five treatment groups as follows: (1) 175 mug prostaglandin analogue (closprostenol I.C.I. Ltd) (2) 1 mg K11941 (alfaprostol VETEM Ltd), (3) 2 mg K11941, (4) 3 mg K11941 (5) 2 ml saline (control) [19].
• Gestation length and lamb birthweights were unaffected by melatonin [20].
• Altrenogest started by d 110 prevented unscheduled early farrowing and increased (P less than .01) gestation length by 1.7 and 1.1 d, respectively, at UD and UM, but had not effect at BARC [21].

Analytical, diagnostic and therapeutic context of GEST

• Litter size, gestation length and pig birth weight in the 7-day and 21-day starvation groups were not different from those in the control group (P less than .05) [22].

References