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Departments of Veterinary Anatomy and Surgery, College of Agriculture, University of Osaka Prefecture, Sakai City, Osaka 591, Japan

(Received 20 July 1976)

Plasma corticosterone concentration in foetal rats greatly increases during delivery and for 2 h after birth, and then declines up to 12 h after birth (Eguchi, Arishima, Morikawa & Hashimoto, 1976). Although this perinatal increase of plasma corticosterone seems to originate mainly from the foetal adrenal gland, transplacental maternal hormone cannot be completely ignored. Maternal corticosterone can cross the placenta to reach the foetus during late gestation in the rat. After an injection of [¹⁴C] corticosterone into a pregnant rat on day 21 of gestation, radioactivity is found 30 min later in the foetal plasma (Zarrow, Philpott & Denenberg, 1970). Foetal corticosterone also seems to reach the mother, again demonstrated by the use of a radioactive hormone (Milkovi, Paunovi, Kniewald & Milkovi, 1973). However, the placental transfer of