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- Title
FOETAL WEIGHT OF SELECTED INTERNAL ORGANS IN THE CONTEXT OF SEXUAL DIMORPHISM.
- Authors
Waszak, Malgorzata; Cieslik, Krystyna
- Abstract
The aim of this report was to examine and take a position on the following questions: 1) the course of the development of the mass of internal organs and their developmental interaction; 2) the dimorphic differences of the mass of internal organs and 3) the revealing of the intersexual differentiation of the development dynamics of the examined organ mass and the degree of their developmental progress and mutual developmental relationships. The material, comprising 889 foetuses of both sexes in the age from 20 to 42 weeks of intrauterine life, was collected in the Clinics of Perinatology and Gynaecology at the Medical University in Poznan, in 1980-2000. During clinical autopsies brain, heart, lungs, liver, spleen, kidneys, adrenal glands and thymus were weighed with an accuracy of 0.1 g. Individuals with pathological changes or labour distortions which could have changed the organ mass were excluded from the researches according to the clinical diagnosis. Issues of this report were considered on the basis of the comprehensive statistical analysis, and the obtained results of statistical relationships were compared with the biological changes of the examined organs during the foetal ontogenesis period. Research results laid the basis for the following statements. The most significant increase in the weight of the internal organs occurs between week 20 and week 36 of the foetal life. The intensive development of the internal organs slows down during the prenatal period. The changes of the physiological functions of the internal organs, which occur during foetal life, significantly affect the weight of the organs and the pace of their growth. The organs which are physiologically interdependent during the foetal life, are characterised by most pronounced developmental interdependence. The process of sexual dimorphism, involving the differences in the weight of internal organs, i. e. the higher weight of organs in the male foetuses, starts during the foetal period.
- Subjects
SEX differences (Biology); ENDOCRINE glands; GYNECOLOGY; CHILD development; PHYSICAL anthropology
- Publication
Papers on Anthropology, 2004, Vol 13, p299
- ISSN
1406-0140
- Publication type
Article