Interactive effects of temperature and hypoxia on heart rate and oxygen consumption of the 3-day old chicken embryo.

In the chick embryo at day 3, gas exchange occurs by diffusion and oxygen consumption (V(O(2))) does not depend on the cardiovascular convection of O(2). Whether or not this is the case in hypoxia is not known and represents the aim of the study. The heart of chicken embryos at 72 h (stage HH18) was filmed through a window of the eggshell by a camera attached to a microscope.