Abstract
THE newborn human is often unable to develop a fever following exposure to various infectious agents1–3 and newborn lambs are similar, in that they do not develop a fever in response to a bacterial endotoxin challenge in the first few days of life4. Lack of the febrile response is thought to be due to the need for a process of ‘sensitisation’ of the lambs, or to the immaturity of some aspect of the fever-production process5,6. Newborn guinea pigs and rabbits also, do not become febrile or show a diminished response to a challenge with endotoxin during early postnatal life7,8. We have examined the response of the pregnant ewe to pyrogens at and near the time of birth, for although they become febrile during pregnancy9, their response to endotoxin at term has not been studied. We report here that the febrile response induced by a bacterial endotoxin or by endogenous pyrogen is suppressed in the ewe for a period extending from 2 to 5 d prepartum to several hours postpartum.
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KASTING, N., VEALE, W. & COOPER, K. Suppression of fever at term of pregnancy. Nature 271, 245–246 (1978). https://doi.org/10.1038/271245a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/271245a0
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