Resorption of Embryos in Rats on Lathyrus Odoratus Diet

Abstract

An analysis has been based on the autopsy findings of rats placed on an experimental pea-pellet diet for varying numbers of days of the gestation period and maintained until autopsy. The period between conception and termination of a pea-pellet diet determined the grade of resorption of the rat embryo. The young experimental mammal, the rat embryo, cannot survive in the presence of the lathyrus factor beyond the 16th day of gestation. In contrast, the adult female exposed quantitatively to the same toxic pea factor demonstrates, during gestation, no osseous or other lesions characteristic of lathyrism. Only when fed the pea-pellet diet for periods longer than that of gestation (22 days in the rat) do any osseous lesions appear, although in non-pregnant females they appear by the 14th day of treatment.