Energy metabolism of maternal and fetal tissues during adaptation to intermittent experimental normobaric hypoxia

: Energy metabolism of maternal and fetal tissues in adaptation to intermittent normobaric hypoxia was studied in experiments on 72 female Wistar rats. During pregnancy the intensity of tissue respiration in myometry was more than twice that in a nonpregnant uterus. The rate of tissue respiration in vital organs (brain) remained at a high level irrespective of exposure to the effect of a gas hypoxic mixture containing 10% oxygen, i.e. the organism of the mother and fetus provides the developing brain with an optimum amount of oxygen even in its possible deficiency. Thus, adaptation of the maternal and fetal organism to GHM-10 is attended by some shifts in energy metabolism which maintain the aerobic oxidation metabolism in the studied tissues for a long duration through more effective consumption of oxygen in its lack.