Abstract
As I pointed out in the article referred to by Prof. Thomson Flynn in NATURE of June 30, p. 1020 (Biol. Rev., 2, 129; 1927), parturition is certainly due to several factors, of which the decline of the corpus luteum is probably one. Moreover, the enlargement of the pregnant uterus is also due to several factors. In the case of the sterile uterine horn in Bettongia, the partial regression of the corpus luteum in the absence of the fœtus may have been the main factor in the uterine involution. In the case of the other horn the enlarged condition of the uterine wall and the contained fœtus involve further factors in the continuation of pregnancy, and it may be that in their presence the regression of the corpus luteum was not sufficiently advanced to admit of the occurrence of birth at the time of the commencement of involution in the non-pregnant horn; that is to say, in order that parturition may occur, it may be necessary not only for the corpus luteum to be in a state of marked regression, but also for the uterine horn and contained fœtuses to be in a certain condition of development.
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MARSHALL, F. The Corpus Luteum and the Cause of Birth. Nature 122, 242 (1928). https://doi.org/10.1038/122242e0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/122242e0
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