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In vitro Synthesis of Anterior Pituitary Growth Hormone as Affected by Maternal Protein Deprivation and Postnatal Food Supply^1,2,

Department of Nutrition, University of California, Davis, California 95616

Young of female rats fed diets containing 6% protein during gestation are small at birth as compared with pups of rats fed 24% protein diets. Pups raised by stock diet-fed female rats in foster litters of four show significantly increased body and pituitary weight gain as compared with littermates raised in litters of ten. Pituitary growth hormone production, as measured by in vitro ¹⁴C-leucine incorporation and acrylamide gel eleotrophoresis, was significantly decreased in pituitaries of progeny of protein-deprived dams irrespective of their postnatal nutritional regimen. Postnatal food availability, as affected by litter size, did not significantly alter incorporation of ¹⁴C-leucine per unit weight of pituitary tissue of control young. The total amount of labeled growth hormone, expressed as disintegrations per minute per 100 g of body weight, was significantly reduced in pituitaries of young of deficient dams raised in litters of four as compared with control litters of the same size. Control pups raised in litters of 10 had 41.5% more disintegrations per minute per 100 g of body weight than young of deficient females raised in litters of the same size. Young of protein-deficient females raised in litters of four incorporated 26.5% more total leucine per milligram of pituitary tissue than those raised in litters of 10.

KEY WORDS: • Protein deficiency • growth hormone • reproduction • postnatal • rat

¹ Supported in part by Public Health Service Research Grant HD-03158 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

² Presented in part at the annual meeting of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, Atlantic City, N. J., 1972.

Manuscript received 2 February 1973.