Effect of maternal protein undernutrition on growth and development of rat brain progeny
1979
Moraes e Santos, Tasso
The effect of maternal undernutrition on rat offspring was assessed by evaluating the cerebral composition in macromolecules from birth to weaning. Protein undernutrition was imposed on the mothers two weeks before breeding and continued through gestation and lactation. The body and brain weights of the undernourished pups were, respectively, 46% and 88% of that of the controls. The decreased body growth of the pups may have been due to a decrease in total amount of maternal milk produced. The adverse effect of undernutrition on cerebral cell number (DNA content) was observed after 5 days of postnatal life. Also, after 5 days of age, RNA and protein contents were decreased in undernourished animals. No adverse effect on cell size up to 21 days of age could be detected in response to the imposed nutritional stress. Protein synthetic capacity of the cell, however, was lower after 11 days of age in undernourished pups.
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